Category:Creating product ideas and concepts

From WikID

This article is part of the Bachelor design guide; the original version can be found at page 111.

After the phase of problem analysis, the conceptual design phase starts. Conceptual designing means the creative act of think­ing up product ideas and concepts. Once a design problem, requirements and a product vision have been formulated, product ideas and concepts have to be generated. An idea is a first thought that comes into mind, usually in the form of a simple drawing, without dimensions, proportions, shape and materials. Concepts are further developed, have materials, dimensions, shape, details and technical solution principles.

Conceptual design is a process of creative thinking, developing first ideas into concepts and offering realistic solutions to the design problem. Conceptual design is a divergent and convergent process where ideas are generated, tested and evaluated and developed into concepts. Ideas are generated with the use of creativity techniques, such as brainstorming or Synectics. Evaluation of ideas is done with the design goal and design specification in mind. Visualising is an important aspect in the creative phase of designing: exploration of early ideas is often done with sketches. Threedimensional models such as sketch models, mock-ups and prototypes are also used. Such representations of ideas can be used for simulation and testing the ideas and concepts.

The methods presented in this section should be used for creating product ideas and concepts.