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The final outcome (the thing you make in the end) of your graphic products project might be a mock-up or prototype.
For example, if you were designing the casing for a hand-held radio, you would not make the radio itself – as a designer of graphic products you would produce a model of a radio with no actual working parts inside.
The purpose of a prototype is to communicate a 3D design. A prototype helps you to see your design in a clearer, more real way. Prototypes also allow you to test your design.
When designing any product, you must first identify a need. It would be a waste of time to spend ages designing and developing a product that nobody wants or needs.
Most products are designed for a specific client or customer. This can be an individual or a group of people.
You can use the customer to gather primary research and information – take time to find out what they want.
They can also provide you with invaluable assistance when you are developing and testing your final idea or prototype product.
Your sample is the selection of people you choose to answer your questionnaire.
The group of people from which you select your sample is known as the population.
On the other hand, your product may be aimed at a very specific group, for example, new mothers. Your population would consist of just that particular group.
The first thing you must decide is who you want to question. Your product might be of interest to all sections of society, in which case your population might be everyone living in the UK.
These allow you to gather primary research about a specific area.
This questionnaire is asking about how often people go to the cinema. The results would help a designer working on a poster for a new cinema to get a better idea of what kinds of people might be most interested.
Needs and wants of a customer
The questions are closed questions – they give a range of possible options. This allows you to focus your results on what you want to know.
You can investigate the products that are already available.
Needs and wants of a customer
Do these products fulfil the needs of consumers? You can mind-map products and ideas and identify areas where there are gaps in the market – a need that is unfulfilled.
Product analysis should form an important part of the research you do at the start of your project. It tells you what products are on the market already, and how other designers have tackled the design problems you are now facing.
For example, you could evaluate a drinks container. The products should have been designed with the following questions in mind:
How durable is it? Is it easily damaged or broken?
How much does it weigh? You would want a container to be as light as possible.
Can you re-seal it to save some drink for later?
Is it attractive to the target market it is aimed at?
Once you have gathered information from interviews, questionnaires, gap in the market research and product analysis, you need to use this information to make decisions about the product you will make.
You should write down your decisions to create a list of design criteria. These outline the criteria which your product needs to fulfil. Here is an example.
Graphic products are all around us and come in many forms.All graphic products are designed to communicate a concept.Graphic products should be designed with the needs of the end user in mind.Extensive research is necessary at the start of any graphics project.The results of end user and product research should be used to create design criteria.