Designing future products: what difficulties do designers encounter and how can their creative process be supported?

Abstract

To remain competitive, companies must regularly offer new products to consumers. A major challenge for designers is therefore to come up with design solutions and define products that are both new and adapted to future users and usages. Although classic methods and ergonomic recommendations are useful in most run-of-the-mill design contexts, they are of limited benefit when the design situation requires greater creativity. This paper therefore addresses issues related to product design by pursuing a triple objective: (1) highlight the difficulties encountered by designers in imagining and conceiving new products, (2) find out which conditions could help designers come up with creative ideas for innovative products, and (3) suggest methods and tools to support designers’ creative process and help them take other stakeholders’ needs and expectations into consideration.