5.4 Notes on Aesthetics in a Commercial Context

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Design: A Criação de Artefatos na Sociedade

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University of Pennsylvania

Design: A Criação de Artefatos na Sociedade

classificação

This is a course aimed at making you a better designer. The course marries theory and practice, as both are valuable in improving design performance. Lectures and readings will lay out the fundamental concepts that underpin design as a human activity. Weekly design challenges test your ability to apply those ideas to solve real problems. The course is deliberately broad - spanning all domains of design, including architecture, graphics, services, apparel, engineered goods, and products. The emphasis of the course is the basic design process: define, explore, select, and refine. You, the student, bring to the course your particular interests and expertise related to, for instance, engineering, furniture, fashion, architecture, or products. In prior sessions of the course about half of the participants were novices and about half had prior professional design expertise. Both groups seem to benefit substantially from the course. All project work is evaluated by your peers -- and indeed, you will also be a peer reviewer. This format allows you to see an interesting collection of projects while getting useful feedback on your own project.

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Week #5: Aesthetics

Now that you’ve identified what concept you want to explore, this module will explore the aesthetics of design so that you can refine your prototypes to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. You'll learn how aesthetics are used in design, and how they motivate reactions toward artifacts overall using a real-world example. You'll also learn how you can apply these aesthetic principles to your own prototype, so that you can make your prototype more appealing and pleasing to potential customers. By the end of this module, you'll be prepared to implement aesthetic changes to your existing prototype so that you can be ready to submit your final design project for review in the following module.

5.1 Scoop Update: User Testing Two Remaining Concepts8:21

5.2 Introduction to Aesthetics in Design4:12

5.3 Theory of Aesthetics21:12

5.4 Notes on Aesthetics in a Commercial Context8:08

5.5 How to Create Beautiful Artifacts4:30

5.6 Scoop Update: Final Direction6:38

5.7 Scoop Update: Final Prototype8:09

5.8 Scoop Update: Final Prototype User Test2:04

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Karl T. Ulrich
Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Wharton School

I want to say just a few words about aesthetics in the context of

commercializing. Design, and this is going to be.

Largely in the context of product development, product design.

So this is strictly optional but for those of you who are interested in

commercialization, I would just want to make a few additional comments.

This example is of the S2 framing hammer that was designed by Adam Design for Vonn

and Bushnell, which is a, a high end tool manufacturer.

And it's hard to imagine a, an artifact that is more purely functional than a

hammer. And yet,

even in this case I think that applying. Deliberate attention to the aesthetics of

the artifact is, is really important. And there are two main reasons for that.

One is, I think that the, there's some. The, the, the beauty of this object

attracts attention to it and allows the user, or in this case the customer in

this commercial context, to spend some more time.

It, it attracts the user to spend some more time investigating what this is all

about. And even things like the use of the

contrasting color for the shock absorbing rubber elements.

And the way the fasteners are detailed. That attention to detail and care in the

aesthetics of this object contribute to making it.

Contribute to its commercialization, that is, attract the user to spend some more

time investigating it. And also, even in a purely functional

category like this, your users often take great pride in

their tools, and the products they buy. And they think of them as objects of

beauty. And so, if, if you, as a producer, can

also impart some beauty to these objects, you'll have better commercial success.

So I guess the, the bottom line on this point is there, there probably is no

object so purely functional that it doesn't benefit from some explicit

attention to the aesthetics of the design.

The second point I want to make is I, I want to, let me just pose a, a

thought experiment which is, which of these two laptops is the better design.

One is a ThinkPad and one is a MacBook. It's.

One is the Apple MacBook Air and the other is the Lenovo ThinkPad.

And, they have similar prices, they have

similar functional performance is, is one of them the better design.

Now some of you might argue because of the media and because of the consumer

attention that the apple product is the better design.

Actually have that apple product, it is a beautiful design unambiguously its a

beautiful design. But I would argue that the ThinkPad is an

equally good designed, it just a different design.

And it's a design that is working For the company in a different way than the

Macbook Pro design is. So the, the, the Macbook Air in this case

is a, is an elegant tool for the creative professional.

And that's the way it's positioned. And it also, I suppose is, is positioned

for the freethinking consumer. Those are kind of the, that's what Apple

is trying to do with this design. The Thinkpad, on the other hand.

Is positioned as a powerful tool for the business elite.

So imagine yourself on an airplane travelling to some business meeting and

the, the creative professional pulls out the Macbook Air and the hedge fund

manager pulls out the ThinkPad. Those are perfectly consistent product

choices for those two different people. And it would be a mistake for Lenovo, the

maker of the ThinkPad, to try to mirror what Apple is doing with this product

because they have very different positions in the market.

Incidentally the Thinkpad, the first Thinkpad was designed by Richard Sapper,

who is a very prominent designer, icon really of contemporary product design.

And he wrote of the Thinkpad, or said of the Thinkpad, that I designed this to be

a power tool for the business elite. I dressed it in an evening suit complete

with a red bowtie. And if you look at the dress of this

product, it is very much a tuxedo or an evening suit, and it has this nice

accented red bowtie. So,

well I personally quite like my Mac Book Air.

It's a mistake to think that, in a commercial context, there's a single

style that's better than another style. Two designs can be equally well executed,

and position their products very differently, as is the case here.

And both can be great design. The third,

comment I just want to make about commercialization is and, and product

design really is, is two points about this example.

This is an example of the Fallochi electric motor bike that my brother and I

designed as part of the, the company we describe, described in one of the other

modules, Nova Cruise Products. This was not a particularly elegant

design in terms of the aesthetics. We had to do this very cost efficiently,

with a lot of off the shelf products. It's a pretty purely functional design.

It didn't, we didn't have a lot of money we could spend on complex shapes and

molds and dyes for complex shapes. Now the point I want to make here is

that, it's really two points. First of all, even a purely functional

object, that is an object that is designed with almost pure,

pure function. If you demonstrate care and craft in its

design it can be quite beautiful, it can be quite beautiful in an elemental way

and here we did put, we did use a red accent color which is going to be an

inexpensive trick in order to give a little visual interest to the product

but. Pretty much this is, this is a almost

purely functional machine. And it's still, can be quite beautiful if

there's a lot of care and craft that's applied to it.

The second point I'll make about this example is.

That great photography can make even a sort of mundane product quite beautiful

so The photography here is really amazing.

This was done by a very good professional product photographer.

And you can see that he's got almost perfect illumination, even down into the

pockets of the swing arm here. He's, he's done a beautiful job of, of

getting the contrast and exposing the detail.

And you know, the reflections are perfect.

The background is perfect. The lighting is just, is just amazing.

And that photography makes the product look.

In effect better than it actually does in, in live.

And so when you're trying to commercialize a product, you, you, you do

your best on the design. But then don't skimp on the photography.

Because the photography is what makes your product pop off the screen, or pop

off the page of the brochure when you go to commercialize.

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