designProduct Analysis

Product Analysis

What is a product analysis?

Why is it used?

How do you do a product

analysis?

What is Product Analysis?

• Product analysis is looking at existing products closely.

(studying them in detail to find things

out)

Why analyse products?

• A product analysis is an essential exercise for designers.

• A designers influences (culture, environment, surroundings) will affect how they think and approach problem solving.

• Product analysis identifies the many different qualities of similar products to learn what is both good and not so good.

• This learning informs future decision making to improve a designers own solution.

How to do a Product Analysis

• Product analysis is a simple process.

• 1. Choose the right criteria.• 2. Choose relevant products.• 3. Ask lots of questions.• 4. Question your assumptions.

Choosing the right criteria

Analysis criteria will vary depending on.

1. The product.2. The purpose of the analysis3. What you want or need to find out.

Before starting be clear about your intentions.

Starting points

• 1. What are the key factors?• 2. What part of the problem is most important?• 3. What don’t you know and need to know?• 4. What do you know and need to check?

• These are areas of interest and are a good guide from which to choose your analysis criteria.

Criteria • Function What does it do? • Aesthetics What does it look like? • Environmental What impacts does the product and its materials have on the

environment?• Ergonomics Human scale, Safety, Comfort, Ease of use, Performance, • Size What are its overall and component sizes? How do they effect the

design?• Materials What is it made out of and why?• Cost How much do you think it will cost to make and buy? • Users Who do you think will use the product?• Market What group of users are likely to buy, use, be effected by the

product?• Performance How effective is its short term and long term use? • Standards What legal standards must it adopt?• Health & Safety What features are necessary for its safe manufacture and use?

• Other examples of criteria might be;Transportation, Portability, security, strength, weight,

visibility, flavor, technology, speed, absorbency, stacking, growth, efficiency, cleaning etc…

Case Study

Aesthetics• What does it look like?

• How have design basics and principals been used?

• Does it represent a style, symbolism, culture?

Function/User needs

• Who uses it?

• What do they use it for?

• Where is it used?

• How is it used?

• How does it help the user do things better?

Materials• What is the product made from?• What natural resources have

provided that materials?• What are main parts, components,

fittings made from?• Metal, timber, plastics, fibers• How much of the material contents

can be recycled?

Production• What volumes is it produced?

• Mass production

• Batch production

• One off

• What sort of machines

• What different manufacturing processes What parts are sourced elsewhere

• How efficient is the manufacture

Ergonomics

• How does the product fit the human body?

• How does the product adapt to different sizes of people?

• How has the design been made easy to use?

• How could the design harm a person?

• What are the danger points?

Market

• Who sells the product

• Who buys the product

• Who uses the product

• What level of design sophistication do they have?

• What economic demographic do they fit?

Transportation• What transportation is used in each of

the stages of the product lifecycle• What packaging is involved in

transporting the product?• How does the product minimize weight• How does the product minimize space• has the design been

Energy use• What steps have been used to

reduce energy consumption through the products life cycle

• What energy does the product use?

• Can the product save energy in any way?

Re – duce/use/cycle• How can the product of materials

be re – used?

• How easy is it to disassemble the product?

• What steps has the organization made to make it easy to recycle the materials

Think chair

Made Steelcase Designed Glenn Oliver Lowe

www.steelcase.com