Quote

"The inherent messiness of the creative process means that at any time, they can, do, and probably should overlap. Such is the modus operandus of the creative mind: discrete categories often give way to creative continuums." From 'Idea Stormers', Bryan W. Mattimore

Product Research & Product Analysis

Product Research. Product Analysis. 

Are they the same?

What is Product Research? 

When do we do Product Research? 

Why do Product Research? 

The same questions for Product Analysis.

All these questions will be answered in a little while.

Introduction

Very often I see students propose 'Design Opportunities' where product solutions for them are either not a practical necessity in reality or are already in existence.

Another common problem students have with their identified 'problems' is the ignorance that the 'problem' belongs to an isolated case. That means, no one else really have the problem! If a 'product' is created, that product benefits practically no one else. Therefore you must make sure your identified 'problem' does affect a wider group of audience. And this wider audience must recognise and admit to it. You can find that out through a survey or very careful and focused observations. You want to find a problem that is common but unsolved (yet).

The next observation is an extension of the problems highlighted above. They are 'problems' identified from 'worst-case-senerios'. In addition to the failure to study the 'problem' to cover a wider audience, the identified 'problems' came from situations where you only find them in the worst services, the worst hotel, the worst restaurant, the worst food court, the worst toilet, the worst home - where businesses or people are ignorant or did not care about using good existing solutions. 

If you picked 'problems' from cases like the above, frankly speaking, what can you expect on the quality of the service they provide or the suitability of the products they use?

So as a golden rule, identify problems from preferably the best case scenarios. You have a higher chance of hitting a real problem is needs to be solved.

There are many problems from 'worst-case-senerios'. For example, 'the waiter is using a tray that is too small', 'the chair in the hotel room does not match the decoration of the room', 'the toilet is not clean in this hotel', 'the food served does not look appealing', 'the table in the hotel lobby is empty', 'the queue  is too long', 'the flower vase has no flowers', etc. - But remember, we are not in the business of 'rescuing' a failing business, or a failing food store or a failing hotel just because there was a lack in training or business knowledge or even common sense. For all those 'problems' above, the solution is simple. Get some professional help. Get some training. Start using existing solutions. 

In a mini conclusion, an identified 'problem' that the 'carpets are dirty or the decorations of the hotel room is ugly' does not mean that all other established hotels are also the same. An identified 'problem' that 'there is a long queue and customers are getting frustrated' does not mean that all other established services are like that too. Those belong to isolated sad cases of companies or individuals that require basic trainings.

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PART A: Product Research

(Existing) Product research is important right after you think you have identified a design opportunity and before you happily start idea generating. Failure to do so may result in your final product solution being nominal at best.

The objective of (Existing) Product Research is to be aware of all other possible solutions whether they are directly or indirectly solving the problem you have identified. Conduct a thorough search off-the-shelves and online to find out for yourself what could already be out there. 

The good places to look for off-the-shelves product solutions are the specialized shops and city malls where the latest and the most innovative are likely to be found. For internet research, I recommend scouring through the design related websites I have collated. You can find a long list of them on the right hand side of the blog titled 'Design References'. For internet research, the more effective you are with keywords, the more successful you will be to find what you want to find.

Steps:

·         Find existing product solutions through the Internet and from shops (if any).

·         Take note of more ‘web-links’ within the web page that may give clues to the original website of the product or ‘web-links’ that may provide more information about the product.

·         Note that there may be more than one possible existing solution to a single problem.

·         Print the product solution images and paste them in your journal.

·         From the Internet read and study how the problems are presented and how the solution is being described.

·         Save all the web page URLs and information for later use and retrieval.

·         A HANDY TIP: You can use the information to modify and adapt to your own Design Needs & Opportunity write-up later.

NOTE:

1. If you do find existing products, your design challenge will be to bring the existing innovates further and better. 
2. If you do not find any existing products, you might be on your way to inventing a great product solution!

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PART B: Product Analysis

Product Analysis follows Product Research. In Product Analysis, you would have with you at least one existing product to study in detail.

• Study their functionalities and their innovations beyond those beautiful forms. 
• Study the product background. 
• Find out who designed them. 
• Find out why they are designed the way it is. 
• Find out what problems they solve. 
• Note what is good and why. 
• Note what is not so good and why. 
• Note what are the limitations on the existing products.
• Note what could have been done (in your opinion) but not present and why. 
• Find out what else could be practically proposed to make the product work even better.

For product solutions that has more than one solution

• Find out what other products are similar. 
• Find out their similarities and differences between the various similar solutions. 
• Find out what else could be practically proposed to make the product work even better.

At this stage you may also find yourself consolidating good features and functionalities. Save all these ideas for the idea generation stage.

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PART C: Identifying Possible Areas for Improvements

Study the products carefully again and identify possible improvement areas by asking the following questions:

·         What it cannot do yet, but would be nice if it can do?

·         What it cannot do yet, but would be beneficial to the Elderly using it if it can do?

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Final Words

Product Research and Product Analysis should not be done only at the beginning stage of the design process. Throughout the stages of Idea Generation and Development, in addition to your creativity in innovating new functionalities, continue to consult existing solutions and be inspired by them for your next design.

In whatever you do in your design journal, never forget to include images and meaningful annotations.