Design Management Group

What is good design?

Although good design is almost impossible to define, common themes hold true across industry sectors and product types. A well-designed product tends to combine the following qualities:

Useful

It works well and functions as promised. It does what it is expected to and satisfies a minimum or appropriate level of performance.

It has appropriate ergonomics and user interface, considering how, where, how often and who will be using it.

Desirable

It looks good! What looks good will be dependent upon the nature of the market, the lifestyle, culture, age, gender, education, occupation and place of use. What looks good is also dependent upon other competitive and complementary products. In general, it is important for the product aesthetics to be appropriate for the market, users and usage environment. A good test is if customers are prepared to pay a premium because they desire it.

Producible

It must be capable of economical volume manufacture using appropriate production methods, considering the impact on the organisation of new components, assemblies and processes. Producible products combine optimisation of assembly and manufacture with modularity and platform strategies.

Profitable

It must result in sufficient business rewards, measured in terms of market share, gross margin, break even, turnover or sales volume. Financial rewards may also be supplemented by other business benefits.

Differentiated

The benefits of good design are seen in products which are clearly differentiated. Differentiation can be gained through satisfying core user benefits in new ways, by delivering excellence in one of the product's physical attributes or by providing leading support services around the physical goods. The figure below demonstrates these 'layers' and indicates some of the characteristics within each:

• The inner layer represents the core benefits which are delivered to customers and users.
• The middle layer signifies the actual product attributes which can be split into the tangible attributes that are measurable and quantifiable - the performance characteristics - and the 'intangible' attributes. The intangible attributes are those subjective qualities which are often viewed as opinion based, such as appearance, style, feel, character and ease of use.
• The final layer represents the business and market attributes which are essential to promote, sell and support the product.