An Eye on Design

Researchers, product designers explain how transformation from ‘DRAB’ to ‘FAB’ can make profits soar

by Jennifer Lloyd

It’s fresh. It’s bold. It’s great.

Two weeks ago you didn’t know this product existed. Now that you’ve seen it, you simply must have it!

What transforms an ordinary product into fly-off-the-shelf merchandise? Part of the answer is good product design.

Young professionals engrossed in their iPhones’ capabilities, executives seated in space-aged Aeron chairs and casual shoppers strolling through Target’s “Design for All” collections may unwittingly seek out well-designed products. But experienced designers and researchers are still pinpointing exactly what constitutes “great design” and how best to incorporate those factors into the innovation process.

“Up to now, the manufacturing of good design has been left up to these product visionaries or design kings or people who have this exceptional talent to come up with beautiful shapes and beautiful forms,” says Raj Raghunathan, associate professor of marketing at the McCombs School. “We wanted to kind of lower it down from that pedestal and make the idea of producing great design accessible to people.”

Raghunathan brought industry leaders, university faculty and researchers together to delve into these questions at the Consumer-Oriented Product Design Conference held at McCombs Oct. 12–13.

But last fall’s conference was just the beginning of the discussion. The McCombs Center for Customer Insights and Marketing Solutions (CCIMS), which sponsored the conference along with the McCombs Research Excellence Fund, will host another symposium on the topic May 14 –15. Industry executives and faculty will join forces to study the issue of holistic design, says Lamar Johnson, executive director for the CCIMS and associate director of the McCombs Supply Chain Management Center.

“Product design is a very hot topic in the area of marketing today, and companies are researching what some are calling ‘holistic design,’” Johnson says. “Holistic design is looking at consumer need backwards through the supply system, so that the product not only meets a consumer need, but is also low-cost and sustainable.”

Deconstructing Design

Steve Diller, partner at Cheskin Experience Design Studio, spoke at the October conference and deconstructed what design truly means.

“Design is about understanding people, caring and having empathy,” says Diller. Though some consumers might believe product designers use eye-catching forms to dupe them into unnecessary purchases, Diller disagrees.

“(Product design) is not about manipulative sales,” he says. “It’s the opposite. Design is the skill of identifying and creating value.”

According to Diller, that value comes in the form of different product “experiences” that tap into economics, functionality, emotions, identity and meaning. Consumers desire products that are reasonably priced, work well, elicit emotions such as happiness and fit their lifestyles. Diller points to the Harley-Davidson Motor Company as one that provides a meaningful experience by producing motorcycles that both function well and provide a feeling of freedom.

Though designers can best integrate product experiences in the early stages of development, Diller says companies spend only a small portion of their development budget on designing the initial model. He says companies prefer to pump funds into commercializing and marketing the product while neglecting front-end development. But he and other industry leaders and researchers have found new ways to invigorate the design process.

Form, Function and Fortune

Designers must unify form and function to achieve a lucrative design, according to conference presenters, including Raghunathan and Violina Rindova, associate professor of management at the McCombs School.

“It is well accepted that product design—the combination of a product’s form (how it looks) and function (how well it performs)—is a significant determinant of its commercial success,” says Raghunathan.

Rindova believes form is often overlooked in favor of function. “Many companies heavily emphasize the technological capabilities of their products but miss out when it comes to good external design,” Rindova explains. “There is this blind spot arising from the notion that design is trivial.”

But this blind spot may also be a golden opportunity. Rindova says companies that have mastered the art of design send competitors scrambling to catch up even though their products may be technologically similar. She points to the iPod as one example in which a company took a basic digital music player and transformed it through great design. Apple Inc. has outpaced competitors and sold more than 100 million
iPods since launching the product in 2001.

“If you think about design as an aspect of quality, something that gives people psychological, emotional and other comfort in performing their jobs or in living in their homes, then they are willing to pay a premium for that,” Rindova says.

Paying attention to design aesthetics may also mean that investors, in addition to consumers, pay more attention to your company, says Raji Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing. Companies that win awards for well-designed products can reap the benefits in both sales and the stock market.

“The stock market responds positively to the announcement of design award winners, suggesting good design is considered a competitive advantage mechanism for these companies,” Srinivasan says.

Design with the Consumer in Mind

According to Diller and other conference speakers, designers should not tackle innovative design alone.

“Speculating is not a way to design effectively,” says Diller. “You have to go out and immerse yourself in the world.”

Instead, Raghunathan says designers must consult consumers in order to grasp what a customer wants in both form and function. “Including the consumer as an integral part of the design process is very important, rather than just handing them something and telling them, ‘We’ve all decided this is a good design and therefore you need to buy it,’” says Raghunathan. “Incorporating buyers when you are trying to decide how the product should look and what features and bells and whistles it should have is a much better way to approach the design process,” he adds.

Placing design into a practical context is something conference presenters Steven Bishop, who works on IDEO’s sustainability efforts in Palo Alto, Calif., and Rob Wallace, managing partner of Manhattan-based
Wallace Church Inc., know all about.

Bishop even put garbage into context when he helped design a new trash can for an OXO product line. He says the IDEO design team observed people’s relationship with trash in everyday environments. Only in the context of the home did designers notice how often people toss trash into the can as though they are shooting a basketball. This observation inspired designers to raise the back of the trash can to be a better backboard.

Likewise, Wallace says his company helped Gillette place its MACH3 razor in context through a visual language. In talking to men and watching them shave, the designers decided the razor should embody
a “breakthrough” of speed and masculinity. They defined the look of the new product through graphic representations of jets, supernovas and even the characteristic bright blue color. These visual representations personified the brand experience most desired by customers and led to impressive product sales—one of the best measures of great design.

For more information on the Center for Customer Insight and Marketing Solutions or the upcoming product design conference May 14-15, visit http://cci.mccombs.utexas.edu.