Before the lecture started we had a little discussion about placements. He informed us of useful websites to consider using to help in the searching process and encouraged us to wrote letters instead of email. Letters are much harder to erase and can be passed through a chain of people before it is thrown away, where as an email can simply be deleted. This tip will hopefully be very useful.
Next we began the lecture, discussing design in industry. In industry designing is influenced by all sorts of areas not just you. Finance, marketing, you, production and technical R&D all contribute to the design on the inside and market research is the only outside factor. Market research however contributes to decisions made on the inside of the company. To gather ideas and concepts, finance will have to contribute money to the cause of marketing, in order to generate a design concept. Then we develop the design which also costs, calling upon finance to fund the production side of the company. Sometimes these coordinators on the inside conflict and me as a designer needs to be prepared for a reapplication to the design process to overcome the problem and find a solution. The design then gets finished and ready to send to the market.
Obviously there will be pressures in the design work place and there will be some error you will make every now and then. There are two types of error, human error and design error. We must make sure it is never a design error, this can result in huge costs for the company and results in loosing your job. For example, recently Samsung had a design error which resulted in huge costs for them. The Samsung mobile phones overheated and set on fire, causing severe injury to many people and damage to the environment.
Next, it was interesting to hear how Peter as a designer dealt with clients and what he learnt from his 20 years experience in the design world. I learnt, every time you speak to a client you should make note of their requirements for a source of proof. This makes it harder for them to reject the idea with their input also residing within the design. It is important to let the client think he is the boss, as some of them is then in the design and makes it difficult for them to say I don't like it. Also, never just answer with just 'yes'. Ask questions. 'Why do you want this style', 'why this', 'why that', 'why then', etc. You need to ask questions , because you must understand that the client is probably not giving you all the information you need to create the most appropriate design, so you must work it out of them. This was very insightful to learn and will stick with me.
Now I moved on to product positioning. It is basically assessing situations as designers and where you should position the product to hit the best market. There is an individuality and common aspect to this idea. For example, why do we wear the clothes we wear, why do 25 year olds want to be 21 year olds, why do 30 year olds want to be 25 year olds and so on. Product positioning is measured on a scale of price and quality. Things genuinely high price and high quality and low price, low quality. You don't have a low price high quality item. If you did, it would become in demand and drive the price up to re-position it as high priced. Its important to understand that there is a market anywhere within the dotted area in the graph. There is a market for low, low, as well as the richer population who may strive to edge into the high, high bracket. As a designer you should ask, where does the brand want to be in ten years time. If the brand gets better in quality and raise the price, there will be a whole new breed of competition. Will the brand do well competing with this competition, or is it best competing with the lower priced competition. Because, you still make great profits in the lower bracket of the product positioning scale. Me as a designer should ask these questions to a client to discover the brand direction and position.
I was then introduced to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix graph that illustrates the brands positional journey in the market. It basically illustrates how a new design enters the market, in high demand and high in value, for example a new iPhone has just come out. This will flow along a certain time scale becoming less and less in demand and reduce in value. At this point it reaches the cash cows level and needs revamping to get the product back into the market. This is where the designers will produce a new advertising to re-promote the product. Sometimes the product can just fall straight down the 'BCG' matrix. So it is important that you understand the client does not know everything and you use your own knowledge of how to position and sustain the brand in the market.
After, I was shown the PEST analysis, this is analysing whether the product is political, economic, social and economical. But, it is also how you analyse the product in 5 years time or 10 years time, as to whether or not it will still tick these boxes. For example, will you product continue to compete with the laptop in ten years time or will it take over from the laptop. Its is basically thinking outside the box, tactically how you can position a product over a duration of time. Then I learnt about SWOT analysis. This is understanding that strengths and weaknesses are internal and opportunities and threats are external. Most of the time you can not undertake things in the internal side, only the external. As a designer you do not know it there is a very harsh political or financial environment within the company, you only work with the company.
Product Life cycle. A product life cycle all start off with an idea, then develop making an initial loss draining money to advertise and promote the product, but then grow at it hits the market, then eventually matures to then decline. Product life cycles can be extended through advertising and promotions, these are the red lines in the graph. This is done by understanding all of the techniques learnt earlier in the presentation.
Finally, there is the adoption curve. It illustrates the market who you are talking to and creates a structure to aim your market towards. It begins with the innovators, moving to early adopters, then to the early and late majority, falling to the laggards. Laggards are people who dont want anything to do with the product, they are happy with what they know and stick to that product. We are all laggards in our own way. For example, Dyson owns 80% of the market and can not appeal to the other 20% because they do not want buy into this product. The style of your designs will therefore have to be different to appeal to these different audiences to engage them with the product. To finish, I learnt about obsolescence. this is basically the life span of a product in terms of function. Obsolescence of a product is both intentional and unintentional. For example, when your laptop dies in 5 years time, do you pay £500 to get it fixed of pay for a new and better laptop. Companies can make this strategical and can plan when to bring out their next products to raise profits.
To conclude, I have learnt so much from these lectures and even though it is a lot of information to take in, I still enjoy it. The information is provided vital to know to succeed in the design industry so I try to take in as much as possible and take as much notes as I can.
