Task 2: Objectified

The impact of design on our world undoubtedly goes unnoticed by the majority of its population. The end product is all a general consumer will ever see - and if the product is successful - rarely questioning the design steps to create it. This is what separates a consumer and an Industrial Designer.

As a young designer it is often a stumbling response that I can offer to the question "What do you do?". Explaining Industrial Design to somebody who is unaware of it is a difficult task and one that requires a comparison to engineering references. However, Industrial Design is not engineering, while yes it may be a part of it, ID is much more. It is encoding products with emotion, the enjoyment and the attachment that people feel towards a product and Objectified explains this extremely well.

In saying that, even I have learnt some things from this documentary. The first thing that really caught my attention was Dan Formosa's explanation of the target user. In my experience it has been the norm to assume an average user and try to address their problems and needs. However the idea of designing for the extremes, those with arthritis or elite athletes is an interesting one. Ultimately this rings true with almost all products - If we can design for those on the extreme scale, then the product will also fill the gaps of those in between. An example of this is an elite athlete. If we can design a runners shoe that best cushions the foot and lessens muscle injury, then isn't this product is going to be just as useful to anybody else who runs?

Or you could look at it from Apple's perspective and design for absolutely everybody. Coming from not only an Industrial Design background, but also as someone who works in a Mobile Phone retailer, I'm in a great position to see how consumers react to the iPhone from a sales point of view. I have sold these iphones to everybody from ages 18 to 68. They are iconic of this century and with Jonathan Ives' design philosophy it isn't hard to see why. Industrial Designers spend so much time on figuring out aesthetic and emotional detail that we sometimes forget the technical side. The fact that the macbook airs casing is fabricated from a single aluminium extrusion is amazing and a true testament to design.

I could go on but the point illustrated is that design is something we see everyday in our lives - it is all around us and affects us with every interaction, every frustration and every emotional attachment we have. A product can make us sad, it can make us happy or it can frighten us. It can do this by attaching to our particular needs - needs which can differ between every person. It may be that one product which is easily recyclable and helpful to the environment is not what a consumer wants. Take cars for example. Although we as humans have the technology and ability to produce 'green' cars, the fact they are not commonplace is indicative of the differentiation of peoples needs and wants and how these affect their decisions. However we can see this is becoming less evident as more and more people begin to purchase these 'green' cars.

As Industrial Designers, it is not only our responsibility to create products that help a user, but also to set trends, change views and help shape the world to be a better place.