Designs on the market

Smart companies do not just monitor change — they consider its implications and respond to the cultural, lifestyle, demographic, technological and environmental forces that drive it.

Being alive to the opportunities different disciplines can create gives forward-looking companies more than the chance to respond to an emerging market. It allows the creation of market-defining products and leading positions.

Inevitably, individual companies, universities and technology developers have different ways of working but, with sufficient flexibility, openness and adaptation in a collaborative development, these differences can become a key advantage.

The MP3 player was driven by a cultural shift — people exchanging music on the internet — coupled with a technology change — the low-power low-cost decoding of MP3 files. Designers saw the chance to encapsulate this in a portable device and the key design icon for the decade, the iPod, was born.

The role of the designer is fundamental because they occupy the space between changing or emerging technologies and the consumer. Product designers bring experience of understanding potential customers and insights into how to make a product intuitive to use and how to overcome problems in delivering a new product.