| 1. |
- Andersson, Torbjörn
(författare)
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Aesthetic Flexibility : Modularity of Visual Form in Product Portfolios and Branded Products
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The increase in competition amongst companies that produce complex or large product portfolios has created a need to utilise modularity strategies not only to flexibly manage technical complexity in a costeffective manner but also for visual appearance. This research aims to understand how the visual appearance of products is affected by modular product development strategies. Specifically, the aim is to understand how such strategies induce constraints and generate possibilities for management of visual appearance in the design process.Five studies have been conducted during the course of this licentiate thesis. Two were conducted with professionals and students in design, while the remaining three are theoretical studies based on findings in the literature, theory building, and experimental research. The goal has been to investigate how designers work when they are put to the task of changing and developing the designs of complex products that are part of a portfolio. The challenge has been to study what suitable strategies exist that manage complex products and product brands, then investigate how these influence designers’ practices.The first study examined how coherence towards a product category influences the design of new products. The outcome of the study was a method to explore visual coherence and diversity in the appearance of a product category.The remaining four studies investigated how modularity, brand management and the redesign of product portfolios influence a design process. The second study described a design phenomenon known as aesthetic flexibility, which was further explored in studies three and five. The outcome from these studies was a proposal for four aesthetic flexibility strategies.The fourth study investigated in what way portfolio extension strategies found in brand management and design research are related, and how such strategies influence aesthetic flexibility. The results from study four were illustrated as a model.The main contribution of this work is the phenomenon of ‘aesthetic flexibility’, which helps understand the factors that influence designers when working with branded modular products. Understanding visual flexibility serves as a starting point in further investigations of how different development strategies affect the possibilities for visual product design.The findings of this work serve to illustrate and explain a complex and multi-facetted design phenomenon which many designers manage more or less intuitively today, thus advancing academics’, teachers’ and professional designers’ understanding of the field.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Torbjörn, et al.
(författare)
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Aesthetic Flexibility in the Management of Visual Product Branding
- 2015
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Ingår i: Procedia Manufacturing. - : Elsevier BV. - 2351-9789. ; 3, s. 2191-2198
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper will investigate the strategic design decision-making of an in-house designer in a company with a large product portfolio, with respect to how designers plan for future visual alterations of the product. In-house designers have to think strategically about the creation of recognition and differentiation through design because they influence the company's overall strategies. Therefore, while balancing aesthetic and semiotic qualities of the product, designers have to consider current as well as future needs for recognition and product differentiation. The ability to do so is affected by cost and brand positioning strategy. An exploratory study was setup to investigate what design strategies could be found in an industrial design team employed by a company. The study exposed how in-house designers could strategically incorporate aesthetic flexibility in product parts in order to create opportunities for faster facelifts or redesigns. The importance of managing carry-over details in larger product portfolios was also discovered. To carry over parts from different products is an important way for a company to save money, development time and at the same time increase brand recognition through repetition. Carry-over can be an aid to enhance visual recognition, but it can also be a hindrance when the designer needs to create differencing design values. Most products have a lifespan before they need to be updated or redesigned, which depends on the competition in a product segment. This makes it extra important for designers to have an understanding of when to incorporate carry-over details and when not to. A model was created to describe how carry-over details, design cues and aesthetic flexibility could be managed in a product portfolio. The model is based on Rune Monö’s works and brand management literature, with an emphasis on the brand positioning framework of Point of Difference, Point of Parity and brand extension by Keller et al.
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| 3. |
- Asbjørn Sörensen, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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A new approach to materials in Product Design education : A shift from technical properties towards sensorial characteristics
- 2017
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Ingår i: Alive. Active. Adaptive : International Conference on Experiential Knowledge and Emerging Materials, EKSIG 2017 - International Conference on Experiential Knowledge and Emerging Materials, EKSIG 2017. - : TU Delft Open. - 9788790775902 ; , s. 182-193
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study evaluates a new pedagogic approach implemented in material courses for product design students at bachelor level education. Material education within the field of design education at technical faculties has, in general, a strong technical focus, e.g. selecting materials with predominant focus on engineering properties of materials. Product design education at a bachelor level need to offer material courses that prepares the design students to work both on inspirational and analytical levels in material selection processes. Early in the design education, students often have a preconception of materials, and they need to be introduced to an open-minded inspirational material selection process, based on scientific design methods. When developing a new curriculum for the material courses, it is important to teach materials and production methods in a contextualized setting with emphasis on how materials can be approached in a design process. Methods can be seen as mental tools that aids the design students in navigating complexity and offers them a structure to deal with unfamiliar territories. After an evaluation, we selected some methods, guidelines and tools to integrate in the mandatory material courses for the product design students e.g. the Expressive-Sensorial Atlas, Meaning Driven Materials Selection and the Material Driven Design method. The implementation were made in two steps in order to test, evaluate and further develop a framework for teaching materials courses to product design students. This study only reports the first step of implementation since the second step is under development and will be implemented during autumn 2017.
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| 4. |
- Asbjørn Sörensen, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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A Shift From Technical Properties Towards Sensorial Characteristics in Product Design Education
- 2017
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Ingår i: Building Community, Design Education for a Sustainable Future. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&pde17). - : Institution of Engineering Designers. - 9781904670841 ; , s. 388-393
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to evaluate a new pedagogic approach implemented in a compulsory materials course for product design students at bachelors level at Malmö University. When developing a new curriculum for the material course, a decision was made to teach materials and production methods in a contextualized setting with emphasis on how students can deal with materials in a design process. Methods can be seen as mental tools that aid the design students in navigating complexity and offers them a structure to deal with unfamiliar territories. After an evaluation, some methods, guidelines and tools were selected to integrate in the compulsory materials course for the product design students, e.g. the Expressive-Sensorial Atlas [1], Meaning Driven Materials Selection [2] and the Material Driven Design method [3]. The implementation is made in two steps in order to test, evaluate and further develop a framework for teaching materials courses to product design students. The study evaluate the first step of implementation in general, and the implementation of the Material Driven Design method in particular. It is hoped that this research can contribute to further development of pedagogical approaches for teaching materials and production methods in a contextualized setting for product design students at bachelors level.
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| 5. |
- Asbjørn Sörensen, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Material selection - A qualitative case study of five design consultancies
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED. - : The Design Society. - 2220-4334. ; 1:DS87-1, s. 439-448, s. 439-448, s. 439-448
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This qualitative case study aims at understanding when and how industrial designers, working in design consultancies, engage in activities that will influence material selection in the design process. While the extant literature presents material selection processes as a sequence of activities aimed at finding candidate materials, there is paucity of research on material criteria activities. Formulating material criteria is an activity that is performed during all design phases and they become clearer and more complete throughout the project. For the case studies, explorative semi-structured interviews were conducted with five industrial designers with 10 years of work experience or more. The results suggest (a) that risk management has a major influence on the material selection process, (b) that negotiations of project boundaries in the 'fuzzy' pre-design phase has crucial influence on the risk management aspect of the material criteria activities, and (c) a lack of awareness that design briefs usually outline material criteria expressed as sensorial characteristics, which are later translated by engineering into final material criteria used for the material selection process.
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| 6. |
- Asbjørn Sörensen, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Material Selection in Industrial Design Education - a Literature Review
- 2016
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Ingår i: Design Education: Collaboration and Cross-Disciplinarity, Aalborg, Denmark, 8th-9th September 2016;DS 83: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE16). - : The Design Society. ; , s. 708-713
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study reviews literature on the aspects of material selection within the field of industrial design education, specifically focusing on existing material selection tools and guidelines used in industrial design education. The growing number of materials available today has created a large variety of options for industrial designers, which they are ill-equipped to handle. A key reason behind this is that industrial designers lack appropriate education in material selection. There is a large body of research in the field of mechanical engineering, examining the material selection process of mechanical engineers. There are differences in material selection activities of mechanical engineers and industrial designers, based on their information requirements during different stages of the design process. Recent research highlights a need to merge the perspectives of engineering and industrial design for teaching the subject of material selection in industrial design education at tertiary level [1]-[3]. Industrial designers have unique skills to combine technical properties and intangible characteristics of materials in the product development process. Design students need to learn how to act as ambassadors of the intangible material characteristics in material selection processes in interdisciplinary teams. This paper suggests an approach that prepares the students to work both on inspirational and analytical levels in material selection processes.
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| 7. |
- ASBJØRN SÖRENSEN, CHARLOTTE, et al.
(författare)
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Material Selection in Industrial Design Education : A literature review
- 2016
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Ingår i: The 18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education : Design education: Collaboration & Cross-disciplinarity - Design education: Collaboration & Cross-disciplinarity. - : Institution of Engineering Designers. - 9781904670773 ; , s. 111-111, s. 708-713
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study reviews literature on the aspects of material selection within the field of industrial design education, specifically focusing on existing material selection tools and guidelines used in industrial design education. The growing number of materials available today has created a large variety of options for industrial designers, which they are ill-equipped to handle. A key reason behind this is that industrial designers lack appropriate education in material selection. There is a large body of research in the field of mechanical engineering, examining the material selection process of mechanical engineers. There are differences in material selection activities of mechanical engineers and industrial designers, based on their information requirements during different stages of the design process. Recent research highlights a need to merge the perspectives of engineering and industrial design for teaching the subject of material selection in industrial design education at tertiary level. Industrial designers have unique skills to combine technical properties and intangible characteristics of materials in the product development process. Design students need to learn how to act as ambassadors of the intangible material characteristics in material selection processes in interdisciplinary teams. Industrial design needs to reclaim material education when taught in technical faculties and develop its own curriculum. An open-minded dialogue with the engineering colleagues is a prerequisite in developing a curriculum for material courses in design education at a technical faculty. Together designers and engineers need to define a mutual understanding of concepts and contexts to successfully develop a new curriculum. This paper suggests an approach that prepare the students to work both on inspirational and analytical levels in material selection processes.
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