Exploitation of designers and Customers' skills and creativity in product design and engineering

Abstract

Nowadays, increasing importance is devoted to product experience, which induces customers to choose a particular product over another. A shift of the current product development process is necessary to design, validate, and produce several variants of a product, in order to better satisfy customers' needs, preferences, and skills. This is possible if customers become a central part of the product development process and are more directly involved in the design and evaluation of new products, through the use of more natural and easy-to-use tools. Their involvement would lead to better products, which were more effective and in line with customers' aesthetic and functional expectations, and would contribute to the acceptance and success of these products. © 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited.