Matt Sinclair | Loughborough University (original) (raw)

Papers by Matt Sinclair

A set of 'Customer Interaction Cards' and an accompanying set of workshop materials. Thes... more A set of 'Customer Interaction Cards' and an accompanying set of workshop materials. These can be used to explore and design potential futures for Business as Unusual, and map novel customer journeys through these new models.

Paper published in the proceedings of the 21st international conference in this series organised ... more Paper published in the proceedings of the 21st international conference in this series organised by the Centre for Sustainable Design, and held at UCA Epsom, UK, 7-8 November 2016.

Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when desig... more Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when design is user-led. An exception is the luxury goods sector, in which a common presentation of the brand is one where the customer should aspire to the vision of its designers. In such cases, the proprietor is often cast as a connoisseur, an expert in the brand’s history who is intuitively able to give vision and direction. Within the Swiss luxury watch industry, heritage and the illusion of exclusivity are vital strategies in the communication of products as luxury items. Connoisseurship plays a central role in this communication, establishing the boundaries of brands whose products might otherwise appear similar. In such cases, connoisseurship is presented to the customer as superior to user research, engendering products with a sophistication which customer insights cannot provide. Nonetheless, whilst conventional user research methods play little part in the design of Swiss watches, less ...

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management

This track sought to contribute to design’s potential to shift, redirect and transform power rela... more This track sought to contribute to design’s potential to shift, redirect and transform power relations to achieve sustainability. We sought to direct attention to the political potential in and politics of transition design with a focus on the many ways that power flows through the systems in which design operates. Our intention was to address, directly, the commentary from the DRS2018 track on Designing for Transitions, which noted that authors had tended to “stay on the safe and perhaps conventional side” of the subject. Instead, we hoped that the papers in this track would address “‘politicised issues such as migration, decoloniality, the politics of climate change mitigation… and other complex and controversial problems” (Boehnert et al. 2018) that must be considered in planning and implementation of ongoing sustainability transitions. The politics of design transitions remains marginal in design research. With our call, we hoped to receive contributions that problematised desig...

Rapid Prototyping Journal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how Design for Additive manufacturing Knowledg... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how Design for Additive manufacturing Knowledge has been developing and its significance to both academia and industry. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors use a bibliometric approach to analyse publications from January 2010 to December 2020 to explore the subject areas, publication outlets, most active authors, geographical distribution of scholarly outputs, collaboration and co-citations at both institutional and geographical levels and outcomes from keywords analysis. Findings The findings reveal that most knowledge has been developed in DfAM methods, rules and guidelines. This may suggest that designers are trying to learn new ways of harnessing the freedom offered by AM. Furthermore, more knowledge is needed to understand how to tackle the inherent limitations of AM processes. Moreover, DfAM knowledge has thus far been developed mostly by authors in a small number of institutional and geographical clusters, ...

IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2019

The continuing rise in the popularity of smartphones has led to an accompanying rise in the expos... more The continuing rise in the popularity of smartphones has led to an accompanying rise in the exposure of users to privacy threats as in the case of unintended leakage of personal information from apps. To improve transparency and the ability of users to control data leakage, the design of privacy-enhancing tools aimed at reducing the burden of informed privacy-decisions should be grounded upon users’ tacit needs and preferences. To this end, the present study explores users’ personal perception and concerns toward privacy and their expectations. Initial recommendations include: (1) consideration of the preferences of users for preserving functionalities of their apps, informing users about both (2) the real benefits and actual possibility of using privacy management tools and (3) suspected applications’ data collection behaviours in a way that matches their real concerns and values.

Design for Health, 2019

Wrist splints are a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, however, their effectiveness is co... more Wrist splints are a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, however, their effectiveness is compromised by patients not wearing splints as prescribed. Previous research has identified reasons for non-compliance, but typically lacks insights that could lead to improved splint design. A three-part study, using design probes, context mapping and a personalization toolkit as co-design methods for eliciting patient needs for wrist splint designs, is described. It identifies three themes and nine sub-themes for situations that affect compliance in wearing a splint. Additionally, four motivating factors to wear and 10 motivating factors not to wear a splint are presented. Nine requirements for improved splint design are established and form the basis of the design for a prototype personalization toolkit. Testing of this toolkit reveals participants are keen to wear splints whose appearance matches the clothes they are wearing or activities being undertaken. Co-design methods are shown to be capable of identifying determinants of compliance not previously discussed in the literature, as well as eliciting patient-specific needs for splint design.

Sustainability, 2018

Re-distributed manufacturing presents a number of opportunities and challenges for New Product De... more Re-distributed manufacturing presents a number of opportunities and challenges for New Product Development in a future Circular Economy. It has been argued that small-scale, flexible and localised production systems will reduce resource consumption, lower transport emissions and extend product lifetimes. At the same time smart products within the Internet of Things will gather and report data on user behaviour and product status. Many sustainable design tools have previously been developed but few are able to imagine and develop visions of how future sustainable product service systems might be manifested. This paper introduces the concept of Consumer Intervention Mapping as a tool for creating future product strategies. The tool visualises the points within a product’s lifecycle where stakeholders are able to intervene in the product’s expected journey. This perspective enables the rapid construction of scenarios that explore and describe future circular product service systems. Validation of the tool in three workshops is described and the outcomes are presented. Consumer Intervention Mapping is successful in creating scenarios that describe existing product service systems and new product concepts adapted to a Circular Economy paradigm. Further work is required to refine the tool’s performance in more focused and reflective design exercises.

Online toolkits, also known as product configurators, are a well established means of enabling co... more Online toolkits, also known as product configurators, are a well established means of enabling consumer engagement in the mass customisation of products. Such toolkits typically require the consumer to select from pre-determined menus of modules in order to create products personalised to match their requirements, however in recent years a new class of toolkit, enabled by additive manufacturing, has begun to appear. Providing consumers the opportunity to change a product's appearance presents designers and brand managers with difficult decisions, yet to date little research has been conducted to understand how a brand might restrict consumer choice in order to protect its corporate design language. This paper reports on ongoing research which aims to understand the ways in which brands with mass-customisation offerings manage their identities across product portfolios, and the impact which AM might have on these management strategies. It begins by introducing the current state of AM technologies and how these are being used in MC systems. Drawing on a survey with senior design and brand managers, a specification of an AM-enabled toolkit aimed at consumer electronics products is presented, and future steps for the implementation of such a toolkit are discussed.

As digital fabrication technologies, e.g. additive manufacturing (AM), laser cutting, etc., becom... more As digital fabrication technologies, e.g. additive manufacturing (AM), laser cutting, etc., become cheaper and easier to access, consumers who are not engineers or designers will make more use of them. This trend will occur whether designers, and others, like it or not. Some consumers are already able to design and manufacture their own products. However, these tend to look rather amateurish and not like finished “industrial designs”. This is where professional designers will still have a role to play. In AM-enabled consumer design, the role of designers will be to design deliberately unfinished objects. This is already happening to a limited extent. In “mass customisation” consumers are presented with an unfinished product and invited to follow their wishes and opinions to create a unique object. When considering mass customisation as an example of consumer design, it could be said that this is configuration, not design. Choosing from a menu of existing options does not make someone a designer. What is not possible, within a mass customisation scenario, is the ability to actually change the shape of the product, to affect the size or geometry. Recent work at Loughborough University, and elsewhere, shows how
consumer design can be taken beyond mass customisation. Consumers can be presented with one example of a product design and allowed to change its shape and dimensions. Alternatively, they can be provided with a basic shape and allowed to create additional features to complete the design. To achieve this, new types of CAD software are required, referred to here as “easy CAD”. A number of alternative strategies exist and are being evaluated. Results so far indicate that consumers are
able to create unique designs if they are enabled and guided by the right tools. The key element is to remove the fear of creating a “bad” design. Consumers need to be given the confidence to know that a product they have designed themselves will not break or be dangerous, basically that it is going to work.

Journal of Research Practice, 2015

Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when desig... more Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when design is user led. An exception is the luxury goods sector, in which a common presentation of the brand is one where the customer should aspire to the vision of its designers. In such cases, the proprietor is often cast as a connoisseur, an expert in the brand's history who is intuitively able to give vision and direction. Within the Swiss luxury watch industry, heritage and the illusion of exclusivity are vital strategies in the communication of products as luxury items. Connoisseurship plays a central role in this communication, establishing the boundaries of brands whose products might otherwise appear similar. In such cases, connoisseurship is presented to the customer as superior to user research, engendering products with a sophistication which customer insights cannot provide. Nonetheless, whilst conventional user research methods play little part in the design of Swiss watches, less formal methods are employed. These are shown to also have application in non-luxury sectors. The utilisation of strategies employed by the Swiss watch industry in future scenarios of new product development is also discussed.

Processes such as co-design, crowdsourcing and open design are challenging previously held notion... more Processes such as co-design, crowdsourcing and open design are challenging previously held notions about the role of the consumer within New Product Development. The degree and validity of consumer involvement in product creation varies according to the process concerned, however to date little research exists to classify this involvement. In this paper the New Product Development process is divided into four phases: conception, specification, design and manufacture. The ability of the consumer to influence each phase when engaged in design activity is assessed. A graphical classification of New Product Development strategies is presented, mapped against the commitment of the designer to consumer involvement, and a number of new categories of design are proposed. The changing role of the designer from interpreter to facilitator of consumer wishes is also discussed.

In recent years it has been suggested that rapid manufacturing presents the possibility of unique... more In recent years it has been suggested that rapid manufacturing presents the possibility of unique or bespoke design, tailored to an individual’s need and wishes. Such a possibility infers direct user interaction with the design of the product, however the specification and design of a suitable toolkit, and the new design tasks a user might be expected to undertake, have received little attention. This paper presents a user trial of the design of a USB memory stick, and investigates the extent to which non-professional user-designers are able to engage in design exploration and to communicate design intent. It compares two scenarios: in the first, users sketched a design on paper without guidance or constraint within a specified (volume) envelope; this design was then interpreted to build a 3D CAD model which the user was subsequently able to modify. In the second scenario users were presented with a choice of existing designs and asked to choose one; this design was then manipulated by the CAD operator to incorporate the user’s desired changes. The paper finds a limited ability amongst non-designers to conduct design exploration through sketching, it also finds a conflict between participants’ preferred design process and their most preferred designs.

Thesis Chapters by Matt Sinclair

This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies becom... more This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies become cheaper and more readily available, consumers without formal design training will begin to customise, design and manufacture their own products. Much of this activity is likely to infringe on brands' intellectual property. The research explores the feasibility of a situation in which, rather than attempting to prohibit such activity, manufacturers engage with consumers to facilitate it, thus retaining control (albeit reduced) over their brand's image and the quality of products offered.

The research begins with a literature review encompassing AM technologies and their adoption by consumers; mass customisation (MC) and the management of variation in product offering; and traditional models of industrial design (ID), including user-centred design and co-design. It finds that conventional definitions of MC and ID are unable to provide for the possibility of consumer intervention in the shape and non-modular configuration of products. Further research was then conducted in the areas of Open Design (including crowdsourcing, open sourcing and 'hardware hacking') as well as bespoke customisation, which were found to be much more accommodating of the scenario proposed. A new term, 'consumer design', is introduced and defined, together with the hypothesis that in future, the role of the industrial designer may be to design 'unfinished' products. An original classification of consumer involvement in ID is presented.

Empirical research, undertaken with consumers using an iterative design software package (Genoform), demonstrated a preference for designing within pre-determined boundaries. Action research was conducted to assess consumer-oriented 3D CAD software, and compare its capabilities with that of MC toolkits. A survey of senior designers and brand managers revealed strategies for implementing and managing a brand's product design language, and a guide was created to show the relative importance of designed features. Using these findings, a prototype toolkit was created to demonstrate how a brand might facilitate consumer interaction with the shape design of a complex consumer electronics product (in this case a mobile phone). The toolkit was tested with both consumers and experienced designers to assess its viability.

The research finds that it is possible to create a consumer-design toolkit which enables untrained users to change the form of a product, whilst maintaining brand equity and ensuring the product's functionality and manufacturability.

Books by Matt Sinclair

Design for Personalisation, 2017

INTRODUCTION “We, the people, the untrained majority, are the future of design. We have the tool... more INTRODUCTION

“We, the people, the untrained majority, are the future of design. We have the tools and we will be the masters of our personal environments… We’re not dumb consumers, we’re creative consumers… We won’t buy anything that isn’t uniquely specified by ourselves.”

When Justin McGuirk wrote the above in 2009, a contemporary discussion about the ability of non-designers to engage in design and personalisation activities was already well established. Originating in theories of Participatory Design and Co-Design, the debate had been re-energised by the possibilities emerging from new approaches to manufacturing provided by digital fabrication technologies such as laser cutting and additive manufacturing (to become known more popularly as 3D Printing). Often referred to under the umbrella term of the ‘Maker Movement’, this stream of activity emerged among enthusiasts and hobbyists empowered by access to these increasingly low cost technologies. The users of 3D Printers by companies such as Makerbot and Ultimaker, and electronics and computing platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, provided some of the most visible examples of the open source community ethic which characterised the movement.

Conference Presentations by Matt Sinclair

Interaction 20, 2020

This presentation showcases an innovative approach to pedagogy involving the teaching of Industri... more This presentation showcases an innovative approach to pedagogy involving the teaching of Industrial Design through a User Experience Design (UXD) lens. Emerging from an initial collaboration between HCI, Industrial Design, and Social Science academics from Loughborough Design School and University College London’s Knowledge Lab, Industrial Design students are challenged to design user experiences ‘beyond the screen’, applying conventionally digital UXD methods and approaches to inform the design of future physical product concepts. Through this case study we communicate the process from both teacher and student perspectives, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of teaching and learning this way. We also critically reflect upon pedagogic synergies and barriers, as well as discussing future directions for Industrial Design.

A set of 'Customer Interaction Cards' and an accompanying set of workshop materials. Thes... more A set of 'Customer Interaction Cards' and an accompanying set of workshop materials. These can be used to explore and design potential futures for Business as Unusual, and map novel customer journeys through these new models.

Paper published in the proceedings of the 21st international conference in this series organised ... more Paper published in the proceedings of the 21st international conference in this series organised by the Centre for Sustainable Design, and held at UCA Epsom, UK, 7-8 November 2016.

Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when desig... more Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when design is user-led. An exception is the luxury goods sector, in which a common presentation of the brand is one where the customer should aspire to the vision of its designers. In such cases, the proprietor is often cast as a connoisseur, an expert in the brand’s history who is intuitively able to give vision and direction. Within the Swiss luxury watch industry, heritage and the illusion of exclusivity are vital strategies in the communication of products as luxury items. Connoisseurship plays a central role in this communication, establishing the boundaries of brands whose products might otherwise appear similar. In such cases, connoisseurship is presented to the customer as superior to user research, engendering products with a sophistication which customer insights cannot provide. Nonetheless, whilst conventional user research methods play little part in the design of Swiss watches, less ...

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management

This track sought to contribute to design’s potential to shift, redirect and transform power rela... more This track sought to contribute to design’s potential to shift, redirect and transform power relations to achieve sustainability. We sought to direct attention to the political potential in and politics of transition design with a focus on the many ways that power flows through the systems in which design operates. Our intention was to address, directly, the commentary from the DRS2018 track on Designing for Transitions, which noted that authors had tended to “stay on the safe and perhaps conventional side” of the subject. Instead, we hoped that the papers in this track would address “‘politicised issues such as migration, decoloniality, the politics of climate change mitigation… and other complex and controversial problems” (Boehnert et al. 2018) that must be considered in planning and implementation of ongoing sustainability transitions. The politics of design transitions remains marginal in design research. With our call, we hoped to receive contributions that problematised desig...

Rapid Prototyping Journal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how Design for Additive manufacturing Knowledg... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how Design for Additive manufacturing Knowledge has been developing and its significance to both academia and industry. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors use a bibliometric approach to analyse publications from January 2010 to December 2020 to explore the subject areas, publication outlets, most active authors, geographical distribution of scholarly outputs, collaboration and co-citations at both institutional and geographical levels and outcomes from keywords analysis. Findings The findings reveal that most knowledge has been developed in DfAM methods, rules and guidelines. This may suggest that designers are trying to learn new ways of harnessing the freedom offered by AM. Furthermore, more knowledge is needed to understand how to tackle the inherent limitations of AM processes. Moreover, DfAM knowledge has thus far been developed mostly by authors in a small number of institutional and geographical clusters, ...

IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2019

The continuing rise in the popularity of smartphones has led to an accompanying rise in the expos... more The continuing rise in the popularity of smartphones has led to an accompanying rise in the exposure of users to privacy threats as in the case of unintended leakage of personal information from apps. To improve transparency and the ability of users to control data leakage, the design of privacy-enhancing tools aimed at reducing the burden of informed privacy-decisions should be grounded upon users’ tacit needs and preferences. To this end, the present study explores users’ personal perception and concerns toward privacy and their expectations. Initial recommendations include: (1) consideration of the preferences of users for preserving functionalities of their apps, informing users about both (2) the real benefits and actual possibility of using privacy management tools and (3) suspected applications’ data collection behaviours in a way that matches their real concerns and values.

Design for Health, 2019

Wrist splints are a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, however, their effectiveness is co... more Wrist splints are a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, however, their effectiveness is compromised by patients not wearing splints as prescribed. Previous research has identified reasons for non-compliance, but typically lacks insights that could lead to improved splint design. A three-part study, using design probes, context mapping and a personalization toolkit as co-design methods for eliciting patient needs for wrist splint designs, is described. It identifies three themes and nine sub-themes for situations that affect compliance in wearing a splint. Additionally, four motivating factors to wear and 10 motivating factors not to wear a splint are presented. Nine requirements for improved splint design are established and form the basis of the design for a prototype personalization toolkit. Testing of this toolkit reveals participants are keen to wear splints whose appearance matches the clothes they are wearing or activities being undertaken. Co-design methods are shown to be capable of identifying determinants of compliance not previously discussed in the literature, as well as eliciting patient-specific needs for splint design.

Sustainability, 2018

Re-distributed manufacturing presents a number of opportunities and challenges for New Product De... more Re-distributed manufacturing presents a number of opportunities and challenges for New Product Development in a future Circular Economy. It has been argued that small-scale, flexible and localised production systems will reduce resource consumption, lower transport emissions and extend product lifetimes. At the same time smart products within the Internet of Things will gather and report data on user behaviour and product status. Many sustainable design tools have previously been developed but few are able to imagine and develop visions of how future sustainable product service systems might be manifested. This paper introduces the concept of Consumer Intervention Mapping as a tool for creating future product strategies. The tool visualises the points within a product’s lifecycle where stakeholders are able to intervene in the product’s expected journey. This perspective enables the rapid construction of scenarios that explore and describe future circular product service systems. Validation of the tool in three workshops is described and the outcomes are presented. Consumer Intervention Mapping is successful in creating scenarios that describe existing product service systems and new product concepts adapted to a Circular Economy paradigm. Further work is required to refine the tool’s performance in more focused and reflective design exercises.

Online toolkits, also known as product configurators, are a well established means of enabling co... more Online toolkits, also known as product configurators, are a well established means of enabling consumer engagement in the mass customisation of products. Such toolkits typically require the consumer to select from pre-determined menus of modules in order to create products personalised to match their requirements, however in recent years a new class of toolkit, enabled by additive manufacturing, has begun to appear. Providing consumers the opportunity to change a product's appearance presents designers and brand managers with difficult decisions, yet to date little research has been conducted to understand how a brand might restrict consumer choice in order to protect its corporate design language. This paper reports on ongoing research which aims to understand the ways in which brands with mass-customisation offerings manage their identities across product portfolios, and the impact which AM might have on these management strategies. It begins by introducing the current state of AM technologies and how these are being used in MC systems. Drawing on a survey with senior design and brand managers, a specification of an AM-enabled toolkit aimed at consumer electronics products is presented, and future steps for the implementation of such a toolkit are discussed.

As digital fabrication technologies, e.g. additive manufacturing (AM), laser cutting, etc., becom... more As digital fabrication technologies, e.g. additive manufacturing (AM), laser cutting, etc., become cheaper and easier to access, consumers who are not engineers or designers will make more use of them. This trend will occur whether designers, and others, like it or not. Some consumers are already able to design and manufacture their own products. However, these tend to look rather amateurish and not like finished “industrial designs”. This is where professional designers will still have a role to play. In AM-enabled consumer design, the role of designers will be to design deliberately unfinished objects. This is already happening to a limited extent. In “mass customisation” consumers are presented with an unfinished product and invited to follow their wishes and opinions to create a unique object. When considering mass customisation as an example of consumer design, it could be said that this is configuration, not design. Choosing from a menu of existing options does not make someone a designer. What is not possible, within a mass customisation scenario, is the ability to actually change the shape of the product, to affect the size or geometry. Recent work at Loughborough University, and elsewhere, shows how
consumer design can be taken beyond mass customisation. Consumers can be presented with one example of a product design and allowed to change its shape and dimensions. Alternatively, they can be provided with a basic shape and allowed to create additional features to complete the design. To achieve this, new types of CAD software are required, referred to here as “easy CAD”. A number of alternative strategies exist and are being evaluated. Results so far indicate that consumers are
able to create unique designs if they are enabled and guided by the right tools. The key element is to remove the fear of creating a “bad” design. Consumers need to be given the confidence to know that a product they have designed themselves will not break or be dangerous, basically that it is going to work.

Journal of Research Practice, 2015

Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when desig... more Conventional wisdom holds that new product development is more successfully undertaken when design is user led. An exception is the luxury goods sector, in which a common presentation of the brand is one where the customer should aspire to the vision of its designers. In such cases, the proprietor is often cast as a connoisseur, an expert in the brand's history who is intuitively able to give vision and direction. Within the Swiss luxury watch industry, heritage and the illusion of exclusivity are vital strategies in the communication of products as luxury items. Connoisseurship plays a central role in this communication, establishing the boundaries of brands whose products might otherwise appear similar. In such cases, connoisseurship is presented to the customer as superior to user research, engendering products with a sophistication which customer insights cannot provide. Nonetheless, whilst conventional user research methods play little part in the design of Swiss watches, less formal methods are employed. These are shown to also have application in non-luxury sectors. The utilisation of strategies employed by the Swiss watch industry in future scenarios of new product development is also discussed.

Processes such as co-design, crowdsourcing and open design are challenging previously held notion... more Processes such as co-design, crowdsourcing and open design are challenging previously held notions about the role of the consumer within New Product Development. The degree and validity of consumer involvement in product creation varies according to the process concerned, however to date little research exists to classify this involvement. In this paper the New Product Development process is divided into four phases: conception, specification, design and manufacture. The ability of the consumer to influence each phase when engaged in design activity is assessed. A graphical classification of New Product Development strategies is presented, mapped against the commitment of the designer to consumer involvement, and a number of new categories of design are proposed. The changing role of the designer from interpreter to facilitator of consumer wishes is also discussed.

In recent years it has been suggested that rapid manufacturing presents the possibility of unique... more In recent years it has been suggested that rapid manufacturing presents the possibility of unique or bespoke design, tailored to an individual’s need and wishes. Such a possibility infers direct user interaction with the design of the product, however the specification and design of a suitable toolkit, and the new design tasks a user might be expected to undertake, have received little attention. This paper presents a user trial of the design of a USB memory stick, and investigates the extent to which non-professional user-designers are able to engage in design exploration and to communicate design intent. It compares two scenarios: in the first, users sketched a design on paper without guidance or constraint within a specified (volume) envelope; this design was then interpreted to build a 3D CAD model which the user was subsequently able to modify. In the second scenario users were presented with a choice of existing designs and asked to choose one; this design was then manipulated by the CAD operator to incorporate the user’s desired changes. The paper finds a limited ability amongst non-designers to conduct design exploration through sketching, it also finds a conflict between participants’ preferred design process and their most preferred designs.

This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies becom... more This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies become cheaper and more readily available, consumers without formal design training will begin to customise, design and manufacture their own products. Much of this activity is likely to infringe on brands' intellectual property. The research explores the feasibility of a situation in which, rather than attempting to prohibit such activity, manufacturers engage with consumers to facilitate it, thus retaining control (albeit reduced) over their brand's image and the quality of products offered.

The research begins with a literature review encompassing AM technologies and their adoption by consumers; mass customisation (MC) and the management of variation in product offering; and traditional models of industrial design (ID), including user-centred design and co-design. It finds that conventional definitions of MC and ID are unable to provide for the possibility of consumer intervention in the shape and non-modular configuration of products. Further research was then conducted in the areas of Open Design (including crowdsourcing, open sourcing and 'hardware hacking') as well as bespoke customisation, which were found to be much more accommodating of the scenario proposed. A new term, 'consumer design', is introduced and defined, together with the hypothesis that in future, the role of the industrial designer may be to design 'unfinished' products. An original classification of consumer involvement in ID is presented.

Empirical research, undertaken with consumers using an iterative design software package (Genoform), demonstrated a preference for designing within pre-determined boundaries. Action research was conducted to assess consumer-oriented 3D CAD software, and compare its capabilities with that of MC toolkits. A survey of senior designers and brand managers revealed strategies for implementing and managing a brand's product design language, and a guide was created to show the relative importance of designed features. Using these findings, a prototype toolkit was created to demonstrate how a brand might facilitate consumer interaction with the shape design of a complex consumer electronics product (in this case a mobile phone). The toolkit was tested with both consumers and experienced designers to assess its viability.

The research finds that it is possible to create a consumer-design toolkit which enables untrained users to change the form of a product, whilst maintaining brand equity and ensuring the product's functionality and manufacturability.

Design for Personalisation, 2017

INTRODUCTION “We, the people, the untrained majority, are the future of design. We have the tool... more INTRODUCTION

“We, the people, the untrained majority, are the future of design. We have the tools and we will be the masters of our personal environments… We’re not dumb consumers, we’re creative consumers… We won’t buy anything that isn’t uniquely specified by ourselves.”

When Justin McGuirk wrote the above in 2009, a contemporary discussion about the ability of non-designers to engage in design and personalisation activities was already well established. Originating in theories of Participatory Design and Co-Design, the debate had been re-energised by the possibilities emerging from new approaches to manufacturing provided by digital fabrication technologies such as laser cutting and additive manufacturing (to become known more popularly as 3D Printing). Often referred to under the umbrella term of the ‘Maker Movement’, this stream of activity emerged among enthusiasts and hobbyists empowered by access to these increasingly low cost technologies. The users of 3D Printers by companies such as Makerbot and Ultimaker, and electronics and computing platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, provided some of the most visible examples of the open source community ethic which characterised the movement.

Interaction 20, 2020

This presentation showcases an innovative approach to pedagogy involving the teaching of Industri... more This presentation showcases an innovative approach to pedagogy involving the teaching of Industrial Design through a User Experience Design (UXD) lens. Emerging from an initial collaboration between HCI, Industrial Design, and Social Science academics from Loughborough Design School and University College London’s Knowledge Lab, Industrial Design students are challenged to design user experiences ‘beyond the screen’, applying conventionally digital UXD methods and approaches to inform the design of future physical product concepts. Through this case study we communicate the process from both teacher and student perspectives, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of teaching and learning this way. We also critically reflect upon pedagogic synergies and barriers, as well as discussing future directions for Industrial Design.