IDENTIFICATION & ANALYSIS OF NEED

INTRODUCTION All product designs begin with an idea.

The idea might come from a product manager who spends time with customers and has a sense of what customers wants or needs, from an engineer with a flare for inventions, or from anyone else in the company.

To remain competitive, companies must be innovative and bring out new products regularly by recognizing the needs and desires of customers.

In some industries, the cycle of new product development is predictable.

For Example: In the auto industry, where new car models come out every year, or the retail industry, where new fashion is designed for every season.

RECOGNITION/ REALIZATION OF NEED

Recognition or Realization of Need is a basic step towards designing a process.

This recognition may be a result of:Thinking of a designer who has been

assigned a particular taskorA particular need described by the

customer

A particular ‘Need’ may also be a perception of a lazy man.

Recognition of Need Comprises:Creative processOrganized thinkingDisciplined mindLook out for challenging situations

Great Designers anticipates and projects the unexpressed needs of society much before society itself realizes it.

For example: Thomas Edison, who developed electric lamp much before any significant segment of society desired it.

However a practicing engineer may be communicated a design problem being encountered by his employer or customers. Such problems may be technical or of economical nature.

For Example: Need to protect an aircraft from intense heat while its re-entry from outer space.

UNDERSTANDING THE NEED STATEMENT

Foremost task for any designer is to determine ‘What exactly is needed?’

This task of understanding the actual need statement may appear to be a simple task but it may be often identified in a wrong manner by the designer.

Solutions should not be think off until and unless proper understanding of need statement is done.

If need statement is not thoroughly understood than designer might lead to preconceived solutions and may bypass all the sub-problems that are related to a particular problem

For example: A problem given to designer regarding

design of exit doors of air conditioned public buildings in order to reduce the load on air conditioning plant, the door being used by public carrying bags or luggage in their both hands

A problem of grain being destroyed by mice

Both the above examples have multiple solutions depending upon the level of understanding that the designer has with the problem statement.

Thus, a designer must : Identify goals of designDon’t presuppose any solutionDefine real goalsDon’t impose unwarranted restrictions on

nature of solutionAlways examine the need statement

number of times before reaching any conclusions.

A preliminary statement should be:As general as possibleDefines the essential nature of

problem

We can take another example, such as Eskimo nine dot problem in which we need to connect the nine dots with four straight lines without lifting the pencil or pen.

ANALYSIS OF NEED

This phase is reached when the designer and the sponsor have agreed on the essential nature of problem.

Analysis of the problem is than done on basis of two parameters, namely: Specifications, which means normal function

requirements of a design which every design concept should meet.

Performance parameters or Standards of performance, which means the set parameters against which the design is to be judged.

These parameters however have different roles under different conditions.

For Example: Cost of a car may be a specification for middle income group but it may be a standard of performance if the car has been designed for an automobile race.

Irrespect of these two parameters designer must also have good knowledge about the resources(in terms of materials, machines, skills etc.) available for designing and for converting the designs into physical realities.

Also every product or system operates under some factors and conditions that are being imposed by the operating environment which may adversely affect its performance. Such factors can be exposure to humidity, high temperatures etc.

After a detailed analysis of need is done, complete understanding of problem can be reached and thus we can move on to the next phase called Creative phase of transformation.

Thank You