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IT-Based Tools to Support New Product Design: A Case Study of a Design Consultancy Firm

The research methodology and the design of software applications described in this refereed book chapter has formed the basis of a 3-year EU FP7 ICT project (£3.3M commencing Oct 13). Malins represents RGU in this consortium, with responsibility for helping to design and evaluate prototype software applications which aim to support collaborative product design teams. The research outlined in this European collaboration was first developed as part of a PhD (Liapis 2007) supervised by Malins.

The rationale, methodology and technology proposed for the FP7 project was first explored in this book chapter, which describes the product design processes employed by Studio Levien, a London based product design consultancy. It describes a set of connected software tools that were developed in collaboration with Levien’s design team to support their initial concept development process. The research aimed to assist associative thinking in design by using visual methods eg drawing and storyboarding, combining the functions of searching/presenting, and is focused on the initial stages of the design process. An ‘image search tool’ was developed to support idea generation and collaborative input, with Malins providing the methodology for this work which employed an ethnographic approach, by situating the software developer within the design studio to make first-hand observations of the design process.

The chapter provides an important point of reference for software developers who aim to support collaborative teams dealing with complex systems. The chapter concludes by discussing the potential of the technology for use within an educational context as a way of keeping track of students’ creative development over time.

The research described in the chapter was one of the first to articulate the process of designing applications by involving key stakeholders, based on direct observations over a short period of time and involving the collaborative engagement with end users.