Monday 3 October 2016

Design Process

Lecture - 3/10/2016

In this lecture, we began with looking at the design process chart, it discusses design in the industry world and how it is affected by many different factors outside the design like marketing, production, finance etc and it shows when they get involved at what stage of the design e.g as shown below, production would get involved when the design is at the 'Design Concept' stage because they would have to contribute money to making the design and to develop it.

This is why as a designer, if I was working for a company, I have to think about how it would affect not just me but the finance team, marketing team and so on because everyone is depending on my design that I made which is why mistakes should not happen.




If mistakes does happen, there are several types like human error and design error. If an error does happen, I have to make sure that it's a human error and not a design error because mistakes can occur as humans but we can fix it, we can't fix design errors which then leads to some complications. 

To make sure we are on top of everything that is going on with the world and making sure we don't make a human error, the image below is important because it's telling us that it's important that we know what is going on and what we need to know.


This is vital when working with a client so we know everything that is going on and know if there will be any changes to the world soon because a client might want me to design something that involves another culture, it's up to to me to know about that culture so I don't create something might offend them which makes me look bad and the company who hired me. Pete's advice to us was to read the news.

The next part was about how to deal with clients. Pete's advice to us was to make the client the boss or make them feel like the boss, what that means is if you let the client feel like the boss and let the client have an input into the design, they will buy into it because they have contributed towards it so it will feel like they have created it, this will create a good client relationship because you're letting the client be a part of the design.

It is very important to note down everything that has been said and record any requirements so that I have evidence of the conversation, in case the client starts saying they didn't say something even though they did, I will have evidence of it, not only that, in case I forget anything, I can use the notes to help me remember instead of going back to the client and asking what they said because it will make them feel that I weren't listening.

What I need to understand that all of the information will not be there and what I mean is, the client might not give all of the information to me, that could have been by accident or on purpose, that doesn't matter because my job either way is to ask questions, assess the situation and respond to it. Before I leave my client, it is vital that I have all of the information I need.

Product Positioning


A company would use this technique to determine where they want to present their products in the best possible way. It's a good way to determine who your competitor is so you got an idea of how they work and how you can respond to it e.g There's no point for Lada to be placed by Rolls Royce on the diagram because they can't compete with them because of the quality and price so they have to be realistic of where they are at the moment.

This is also another great way for me, as a designer, to ask the company, where do they want to be in 5 or 10 years because knowing how high or low they want to be placed in the future will tell me what ambitions they have and I can work in a way that suits them, e.g, if a company wants to continue making low quality products at low price, I would know exactly how and how much work I should put into the design.

PEST Analysis and SWOT Analysis



PEST Analysis is a tool used by businesses to assess the market by looking at the different factors like Political, Economic, Social and Technological. It is assessed by analyzing the environment around them to see if they will have an impact on their product or organisation, then the results of it is used to identify the strengths and weaknesses but also the threats, this is where SWOT Analysis comes in.


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