Usability: form that says function

Historically, a product was perceived as a “static manifestation of image with fixed attributes”. Today, advanced product design thinking is more likely to see it as a “company representative delivering service over time”. Explores this shift and demonstrates how contemporary practice is concerned with the entire customer‐product relationship over its whole life cycle – from pre‐purchase prejudice to disposal and how this relationship is itself at the heart of the way in which brand values, and brand loyalty, are created. In so doing looks at the most effective ways to manage the product design process – drawing on illustrations ranging from personal computers and telecommunications to cars and kitchen equipment.