Product design is the process of creating new and improved products for people to use. Consumer products are are designed to facilitate use by the general public, whereas commercial products are used to produced goods and services.Consumer products are different from commercial products in several respects:
>the user is generally untrained
>the user often works unsupervised
>the user is a part of a diverse population(Cushman and Rosenberg,1991).
The process of designing and manufacturing consumer products is influenced greatly by the needs and demand of the customers. In the early twentieth century,consumer products were designed primarily to provide functionality.Later,products feature,such as forms and appearance,began to emphasized. Although this resulted in good-looking products with an array of features,such products often were difficult to use (Ulrich and Eppinger, 1995).
In 1990's,designers began emphasizing the user friendliness of products.To make products usable by making them environmentally friendly,designers needs to emphasize energy efficiency,recyclability, and disposability.This calls for considering all life-cycle phase of a product simultaneously - design,product,distribution,usage,maintenance,and disposal/recycling - in determining the usability.
Of late, designers began emphasizing the customizability of products to meet demand from users to satisfy individual tastes and preferences.
CRITERIA FOR DESIGNING and MANUFACTURING USABLE CONSUMER:
*Functionality
*Ease of operation
*Aesthetics
*Reliability
*Maintainability/serviceability
*Environmental friendliness
*Recyclability/disposability
*Safety
*Customizability
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