Category:Creating a design goal

From WikID

This article is part of the Bachelor design guide; the original version can be found at page 64.

A product design process is preceded by a product planning process as was explained in the first part of this reader. In the product planning process, policies are fomulated based upon an internal and external analysis of the market and the company. The product planning process ends with the formulation of a design brief, which forms the start of the product design process. Sometimes the product ideas are already mentioned explicitly in the design brief, and sometimes the product design process first starts searching for relevant product ideas. In any case, the product design process always starts with a stage in which the design problem (or challenge) will be analysed.

A first description of the design problem is stated in the design brief. Analysing the design problem serves the formulation of a design goal (or: goals). Hence this first section of design methods: creating a design goal. Design goals are broad statements of intent, that can be elaborated into more specific goals. The designer could study the motivation of the problem owner, the need in the market, the context the product is used in, competitive products, user behaviour, the product’s functions, the company’s production facilities etc. After this analysis, conclusions are drawn often in the form of requirements, a design philosophy, a mis­sion statement, or a product vision.

In this section, various methods are presented that facilitate the first stage of a design process: the analysis of the design problem, and the formulation of a design specification.