The Design Context

Typical product development processes may be generally thought of as occurring in several broad steps: definition of design needs or requirements, concept development, concept and preliminary design, design development, preproduction prototyping and evaluation, and production design. The design process does not necessarily march so literally from one step to another without a backward look. Good design work often comes from processes characterized as being the result of convergent back and forth iterations. Well-received design proposals are typically those that both meet functional requirements and have the kinds of design appeal with respect to both visual and user interface qualities that have long been known to characterize successful product designs. The final stage of production design involves making initial runs of the product, normally done using the actual intended production process. Initial runs are quite carefully monitored for production quality. Some units may be again placed into a user context for further evaluation and testing. Normally, production levels are quite small at first while process bugs are worked out and the workforce is trained. In combination with a marketing and distribution plan timetable, the product then goes into higher-volume production and is subsequently officially launched.