Yes, I am a proud Mechanical Engineering Nerd, and, yes, I still use a TI-82 calculator and dial calipers regularly. But today, I want to share my personal experience and understanding of Industrial Design. Having led the creative engineering offering on Sundberg-Ferar’s multi-disciplinary team for seven years, and now, as CEO of this historic product innovation studio, I firmly believe that the industrial designer’s perspective on the product development process will make any engineer better. Let me take you back through my journey to show you why.
From an early age, two things shared responsibility for my “engineering-ness”: First, the best Lego set ever created, known as the “Deep Freeze Defender:
I think my set existed in its built configuration for about 15 minutes before being re-purposed as trains, boats and blasters (as any good Lego set should)… In the words of Albert Einstein, “a person who never smashed his model on the floor never made something new.” The second culprit for my “engineering-ness” was my 1980 Ford F-150.
This truck taught me the ins and outs of a Haynes repair manual and the value of greasy fingernails and busted knuckles. I’m sure a lot of my fellow engineers (and also industrial designers) out there can relate to these two core sources of inspiration for design:
Caring about the way things work, and using this to create
This way of thinking followed me – and eventually led me – to Honda and the world of automotive seating. Here, I was able to tackle the great design challenge of seating and its unique combinations of materials, and complex mechanisms joined with ergonomic and styled components.
Over 7 years, I became an expert at specification, or ‘spec’ compliance. In my mind, specifications were laws, and there were a lot of them. Every technical evaluation, every prototype build, every drawing release, the spec was the rudder that steered the ship…at least until my drawings were critiqued by my Industrial Designer counterpart. This was the one instance where my specs were seemingly irrelevant.
Today, I know how critical and magical industrial design can be at making things beautiful, usable and meaningful. They bring the emotional spec to the table along with the functional spec. They bring an understanding of forces like the culture surrounding the product, the context in which it’s being used, and the principles of human behavior that determine how it is used and misused. This is done through concept generation, sketching, prototyping, illustrations, renderings and hands-on development through to production. Admittedly though, my first few encounters with this human-centered, emotionally astute approach to product development were a little frustrating. At first, our conversations typically went like this:
Even then, I always respected industrial design, but at the same time, their perspective and methodology just seemed to make me take the hard road more often than not (why not just leave that fastener head exposed?) I was always asking “why?” Why was I spending design time on items that had nothing to do with the spec compliance I had come to live by? I had everything I needed to design a perfectly functional seat. Why did I need more?
I really started paying more attention to this industrial design approach when we built our first prototypes and I realized that what we had created together made me want to buy it. I felt drawn in. Emotionally connected. And I’ll admit that it seemed my spec had little or nothing to do with it. It became apparent that while I knew how things worked and could invent and create, I was still missing something:
What does the user want? What do they need? What motivates them? A technical specification doesn’t reveal this. It also doesn’t tell you whowants it, or how much it’s worth. However, if you know what the user wants, you can design to fill that desire, a fundamental first step to getting a product off the dealer’s lot and into someone’s driveway or off the shelf into someone’s home.
While this kind of knowledge is fundamentally different than how things work, it still reaches for the same purpose: To create. Both industrial designers and engineers live and breathe this quest every day.
Fast-forward to today. I am CEO of Sundberg-Ferar, a product design consultancy with deep roots in Industrial Design founded in 1934 by Carl Sundberg and Monty Ferar, two ex-GM stylists. The company’s reach has expanded across all product design categories since its inception, and this variety is represented in the diversity of work we do today. Here, in our multi-disciplinary team, our engineers are really Engineer/Designers, our designers are Designer/Engineers, and all of our disciplines – Design Research, Innovation Strategy, Prototyping and beyond – constantly overlap. We’re experienced in a multitude of industries and make design connections across seemingly opposite categories. The resulting design solutions are rich with the cross-pollination of ideas that fuel true innovation and make us a huge asset to our clients.
At the core of our studio offering is this breadth of design talent and the understanding that each of our individual disciplines are more powerful when they work together. We remain rooted in Industrial Design, and are committed to the powerful blend of both the functional and emotional attributes that make good design. Now what do I mean by these emotional attributes? What is this understanding of human behavior that we, an industrial design studio, bring to the table?
Humans are fiercely unique. Each of our curiosities are different. Each of us respond differently to joy and fear. Humans have preferences and emotions. Our passions are diverse, and our range of different behaviors is immense. All these complexities are extreme and require intense analysis to even begin to understand. Ironically, the objects that we design for ourselves are quite simple by comparison.
Still, the tools we humans use are a critical part of who we are. We all share the common genius of using physical objects to improve our lives. In fact, we are so inundated with objects and tools throughout our life that sometimes we don’t even realize when we’re using them or how we’re using them. Crucial innovators of history who have changed our lives with their products and tools have recognized this. As Henry Ford famously said:
So, how do we design objects and products for the benefit of humankind when humans can’t tell you what they want? One of the core approaches that stuck with me from Honda was “Genba”: “go to the spot”. This is the simplicity of solving a problem by seeing it for yourself. You learn by being there. In my earlier career this represented being where your test failure was, or being on the factory floor. In the industrial design approach, this means doing rigorous design research directly with the multi-users who will be interacting with the product along the creative supply chain. Observational, qualitative and quantitative research arms designers with what they need to know about their users. This unveils compulsive behaviors in users and subtleties that result in purposeful innovation. Not only listening, but also understanding the spoken and unspoken needs and wants of users – this is user-centric thinking and it’s at the core of good industrial design. Both industrial designers and engineers must know this and practice it.
This research process also reveals who the audiences are for the product. It connects the object with its target segment. Now I mentioned “audiences”, plural, intentionally because there are more to consider than just the end consumer. At the opposite end are the people cutting the checks: Upper Management, the CEO or the OEM. In between lies the distributor, the middleman or Tier 1.
The manufacturer is an absolutely critical user as well. In addition to the desirability and business viability, the factor of manufacturing feasibility is equally important. We must remember the factory workers and the responsibility that we have as designers and engineers to keep them busy through creating meaningful products that sell. And further, to be mindful of designing things that can be manufactured efficiently and safely. Don’t forget to go to this “spot”. The factory floor is one of the most valuable places for any designer to put boots on the ground.
Now we know the value of understanding who the users are. The other part of the equation is how to create “want” and how to understand “need”. We have to create appeal; we have to attract our users. This is the final piece of the puzzle required for successful product development and it’s critical that both design and engineering play a crucial role here.
For the engineer, the tools of the trade for creating appeal are:
1) COST: which represents value to the consumer and proves viability for the business
2) SCHEDULE: which helps focus the appropriate areas of innovation
and
3) PERFORMANCE: which defines the vast product functions that can inspire joy in the users; from basics like product weight to nuances like the tactile feedback of a switch.
For an Industrial Designer, appeal lies behind
1) MEANING: giving objects meaning and emotional connection
2) USABILITY: ergonomics and understanding human intuition
and
3) AESTHETICS: making it look beautiful.
This effort to create appeal and desire in product development is summarized by Procter and Gamble as the “first and second moments of truth” in a consumer purchasing decision. The premise here is that a buyer has two reactions to products: The first moment of truth is how it looks. The second moment of truth is how it works, what it feels like and how it stands the test of time.
The first moment of truth is the most visceral and reactionary and based on product appeal as it sits on the shelf or on the website. Here, in the product aesthetics, the buyer decision is largely considered to be guided by industrial design aspects. However, let’s not forget that engineering itself can be beautiful. There is beauty in efficient shapes. There’s beauty in the sound of a V8 engine. There is also beauty in mechanics itself. The engineer can have an immense influence on this first moment of truth just like Industrial Design.
The second moment of truth is considered to be where engineering shines. This is the lasting impression after really using it. Here, function, performance, reliability, durability and quality are all put to the test and given an approval rating. High scores dictate high sales and product success. Again though, the supporting role of industrial design here cannot be taken for granted. Good products will also be supported in their functionality by ergonomics and usability through industrial design.
It’s this interdependence of the two disciplines that rises to the surface as we think about appeal; about what users need and want. After recognizing appeal as the root of successful products, we can see that engineering and industrial design must be concurrent. They must both be respected as the foundation for good design. As Steve K. Roberts said, “Art without Engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating.”
With each year working at Sundberg-Ferar, my appreciation for this collaboration has grown to be the bedrock of what I believe is good overall design. Scissors appeal through ergonomic surfaces and the right mechanical advantage ratio for the material they cut. An excavator cab appeals through ideal sight lines to the mechanics, intuitive controls, sound deadening materials and good service access. An outdoor wine glass appeals through classic proportions, a traditional wine glass “mouth feel”and far-field ultra-sonic plastic welding. And, in each case, beauty is matched to the eye of each beholder.
Once engineers and designers recognize this foundation and our inter-dependence, we can really open our eyes and learn from what each other is doing. In fact, this collaboration is already happening all around us. Embrace the merging of these worlds. Know what you’re good at and rely on your team in the other key areas.
Today’s industrial designers are not just stylists. They have advanced knowledge of materials and manufacturing, CAD expertise, and mechanical intuition. Similarly, today’s engineers themselves meet growing consumer product expectations with user-centric thinking. They embrace the idea thatstrategically applied cutting-edge technology and well-executed manufacturing methods can make a product just feel good, which is part of that emotional spec – the most paramount specification there is.
While each profession has its own demands and expertise, it’s the mutual connection between industrial design and engineering that brings powerful, meaningful results to design. From emerging technology, to transportation, to materials and all facets of objects in people’s lives, the right combination of art and engineering have together revolutionized humans experience with their surroundings. Let’s be a part of it together and keep creating.