Good product design can be summed up as standardization/ Operation Management
A good product design can be summed up as the standardization, simplification and sustainability of a concept. While creating a new product, the key is to make it do its job in the simplest way possible. By keeping things simple and standard, you eliminate complexity, manufacturing costs and maintenance costs. So the saying goes, Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat down your door. Think of a product that you have used that is poorly designed. What aspect of the design is poor? What concepts/ideas discussed in this chapter did the manufacturer fail to address? My example of a poorly designed product is my bathroom scale. The scale works great, however when the battery died I learned that the scale required a special “watch sized” battery. This type of battery was not only expensive (about $7.00), but also hard to find. I had to go specifically to Radio Shack to purchase it. I feel that this is a poor design in that the manufacturer could have used a standard battery (AA or AAA) in the battery compartment w/o interfering with the design. It is available all over, cost effective, and universal. Perhaps the manufacturer purposely chose this design hoping that consumers will just buy a new scale, rather than going through this hassle…
