Shaping products: Differences between expert and novice industrial designers

Abstract

The process of shaping a product's visual appearance is crucial in determining consumer response. However, extant research on the nature of expertise in this process is scarce. Specifically, there is absence of studies investigating differences between how expert and novice industrial designers use information in this process. This research, using think aloud method, compared informational behaviour of an expert and a novice industrial designer in shaping products. We report rich qualitative accounts of their informational behaviour, revealing a sharp contrast between them.