Take 2 on Design Evolution

This happens a lot in product design… You think you have the perfect design for your product and then you think… It’s a good design, but, it does not look new or fresh. Then you start to think about the problem from a different angle. This is Take 2 on Design Evolution.

Sometimes a design evolves from step changes made to earlier iterations. Making step changes that keep the overall look and feel of the original design is a good way of implementing small design updates.

What if you want a bigger change?

Sometimes you look at a project with a fresh pair of eyes you think… We can do this differently, We can achieve the same goal in a different way. Sometimes these changes are so fundamental the final product looks NOTHING like the original. Yet, both designs will solve the same problem.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This demonstrates the benefits and the downfall of iterative product design. Iterative design changes can be a good way to solve small problems or to add new functionality to an existing product.

Sometimes you need to take a step back, frame the problem in a different way and think a little bit differently. Just like we have done with this Tablet Holder. The iterative changes we made to our existing business card holder gave us a perfectly functional Tablet Holder. But when we re-framed the problem we realised there was another solution.

The new solution had its own advantages as well, it used less material and took around 60% less time to 3D print. Sometimes step changes are just not cost-effective. Sometimes it is better to create a new product rather than shoe-horn a change into an existing one.