Introduction to product design

The origins of the first products, or what we academically call "artefacts", i.e. "artificial phenomena of human origin", can be traced back to the earliest prehistoric times.

Whether for defense, transformation of lifestyles, embellishment or comfort, the product was already an object of human genius and a witness to local life. Since then, products have remained the main traces of the technical and social evolution of any civilization. Attempting to understand why and how the products that surround us are designed, consumed and preserved is a kind of paleontology applied to the present day. The exercise is neither simple nor trivial: it's a matter of finding, understanding and analyzing the elements that have structured design, free from any partisan opinion.

For example, the recent evolution resulting from the conjunction of two revolutions of thought, English on the industrial side (produce faster, cheaper and much more), French and American on the political side (access to rights and equality for all), which led to the birth and development of Industrial Design. Handcrafted products designed for the aristocracy and upper middle classes, creating the domain of exportable luxury, and utilitarian products designed for a wider but locally limited population, gave way to industrial products (Y. Deforge 1993) designed for the greatest number, and over time led to the current globalization (A. Cayol 2018).

Whether we're talking about the means of production, the nature and urgency of the need to be met, the functions to be performed, the economic and social constraints to be overcome, the dominant ideologies, the ways in which they are used, or even diverted, all these already highly varied elements also differ according to time, place, but also the product itself. This neutral view, in a world where communication tends to blur information, highlights the complexity inherent in product design, which is inexorably found in even the simplest products.

Conceiving, analyzing and judging a product requires an approach that is difficult to implement, given the many points of view that are necessary each time, and given that the emotional can mingle with the rational, and indifference with passion. How can we move from the cacophony of a mass of disorganized data to the concert that will harmonize them to create a successful product?

From a quality perspective, the stages in a product's life cycle and the environment in which it will have to evolve provide information on the scope of the elements and constraints to be anticipated. From a professional point of view, the question will be how to facilitate and make reliable the designer's work of abstraction, starting from an idea or an expressed or...