design of vision concepts to explore the future: nature, context and design techniques

Challenge the future

Design of Vision Concepts to explore the future: nature, context and design

techniques

Ricardo Mejia (PhD candidate) & Lianne Simonse (assistant professor)

PhD promotors: Prof. dr. P.J. Stappers & Prof. dr. H.J. Hultink, and daily supervisor: Dr. G. Pasman.

Faculty of Industrial Design EngineeringDelft University of Technology, The Netherlands

5th CIM Community Workshop / 2015


Content

Theoretical Background• Sharing product vision• Designing the future (concept cars, concept products, vision concepts)Research questionsMethod• Qualitative inductive research• Video documentationResults• The nature of Vision Concepts• Sharing context in concept visioning• Design techniques for concept visioningDiscussion• Theoretical contribution• Limitation and future research directions

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Constant dilemma

exploiting old ideas exploring new ideas

(Schreyogg and Kliesch-Eberl (2007) & Cornella (2013))

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Design and the future

• Design is closely linked with the exploration of the future (Buijs, 1987;

Morello, 2000; Evans, 2011; Hekkert, Van Dijk, and Lloyd, 2011)

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Concept Cars as a way to explore the future

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Rs P.: Although concept cars are in the automotive industry since 1938, only a few scholars have studied them (Styhre, Backman, and Börjesson, 2005;

Backman and Börjesson, 2006; Backman, Börjesson, and Setterberg, 2007; and Buijs, 2012)

Concept Cars are “experimental artefacts” (Styhre, Backman, & Börjesson, 2005) made by car manufacturers in order to explore the future.


Concept Products a Concept Car in other branches of the industry

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Concept Products are located outside the ordinary product portfolio, and should express a certain competence within the company’ (Ny, & Thott,

2005).Rs P.: CPs are emerging but a little is known about them


Vision Concepts

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Different kind of Concept Products (Keinonen, & Takala, 2010):

(i) product -development- concepts,(ii) emerging concepts, and(iii) vision concepts


Sharing context in product visioning

• a vision is described as “conditions as we would like them to be” (Stokes, 1991)

• research results determined that product visions exert a large influence on a new product´s success (Lynn and Akgun, 2001; O´Connor and

Veryzer 2001; and Reid and Brentani, 2012)

Rs P.: Lack of underestanding in sharing in product visioning

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Design techniques of concept visioning

• e.g. Vision in Product (VIP) approach (Hekkert, Van Dijk, and

Lloyd, 2011)

Rs. P. : It is not clear if the design process is a simplified NPD process (Styhre, Backman, &

Börjesson, 2005) or it is a specific and unique process (Berlitz & Huhn,

2005; Lv & Lu, 2012; and Santamala, 2006)

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Research questions

Therefore, in this paper we investigate the following research questions:

• What is the nature of a vision concept?• How is the vision concept shared in the organization context?• How is a vision concept designed - design technique?

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Method

• A qualitative inductive research (Eisenhardt, 1989) to unravel the nature, sharing context and design techniques of the vision concepts

• A multiple case analysis that includes 5 cases, 3 concept cars and 2 concept products

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Your Concept Car 2004 by Volvo

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Citröen-Lacoste 2010 by Citröen and Lacoste

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F015 2015 by Mercedes-Benz

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Concept Kitchen 2025 by IKEA

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Bio-digester Kitchen Island at Microbial Home 2011 by Philips

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Method / video analysis

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Results / The nature of vision concepts, sharing context and design techniques for concept visioning

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Vision concepts are tangible prototypes used by organizations to explore and present new ideas of the interplay between -system of- products and users in the future.

• The 3 concept cars are presented as vehicles (artifacts), different that the concept products that are presented as systems of products.

• e.g. "CCs funtion as a test bed for new ideas" Volvo

• All of the vision concepts are deployed as prototypes, 1:1 models that present the main features of the concept. • representational, which are non functional prototypes, and• fully working prototype (e.g. F015)

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The nature of vision concepts


Vision concepts are outputs of research projects that explore -research- questions

• e.g. how will we behave around food in 2025? (Ikea), how to enable people to do what they want or need to do? (Mercedes Benz)

Vision concepts are part of a dedicated portfolio outside of the ordinary portfolio

• e.g. Mercedes-Benz, F models (Concept Vehicles portfolio) established in 1991

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The nature of vision concepts


Sharing context in concept visioning

Vision concepts are shared in the organization context in three different levels, in-company, team, and public.

• In-company sharing: Volvo, Ikea and Philips use the vision concept in several internal workshops and presentations

• Public: all of the studied concept cars and concept kitchens are demonstrated on an international event

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Design techniques for concept visioning

The cases analysis results in the identification of five activities to design a vision concept:

• the research project set-up, • the future exploration, • the vision concept design, • the vision concept making, and • the future message on the exhibition.

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Discussion / Theoretical contribution

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Discussion / Theoretical contribution

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Thanks!

Ricardo [email protected]

&

Lianne [email protected]

Delft University of TechnologyThe Netherlands

2015

mailto:[email protected]




Challenge the future 26