Product design Flow-selection scheme

This article discusses the last step of the design process-the selection scheme. Therefore, the choice scheme is the solution that is best suited to this design problem in the collection of possible solutions from the previous step-exploring the possibility. The core of the selection scheme is rational. For the same design problem, the best solutions for different people may vary, and even the same person may choose different situations. Choose what plan is only appearance, the most important is the choice behind the "rationale", this "rationale" is the choice of standards.

Why is the standard so important? Because the work of the designer (including some other work related to the design component) may be challenged by the user, or there is disagreement with the partner, the criteria chosen can express the logic behind our design and are the basis of communication and debate. In many teams, there is disagreement among the members of the team, often the reason is not the difference in the concept, but only the difference in standards, or the importance of some factors in the standard understanding of the difference.

Therefore, the first thing to do before choosing a scheme is to determine the selection criteria. To determine the selection criteria, designers need to consider the user needs, the enterprise benefits of two factors, to achieve a balance between them. Second, make sure that you agree on the standards within the team.

Ulrich introduces a simple and effective method of selecting a scheme-the concept selection matrix. Its form is shown in the following figure, the row of the matrix is the attribute that needs to examine, each attribute can have different weights, represent the importance degree of the attribute. attribute and its weight together describe our selection criteria. The columns of the matrix represent the scenarios to be selected. We rate each attribute value for each design, and eventually each program gets a score to help us make the decision.

The concept selection matrix has three advantages:

1 can find the right answer. Digital scores can clearly differentiate between different design options and help designers find the best solution.

2 can explain the logic behind the decision. Not only the standard of choice, but also clearly explain the advantages and disadvantages of each scheme.

3) able to document itself. A clear and unambiguous representation of the concept selection matrix can be easily applied to documents without additional processing.

What needs to be explained is that although we want to make the selection process as objective as possible, in the process of assigning weights and scoring to each attribute, there will inevitably be subjective elements. In order to reduce the effect of this subjective component on the final result, I think there are two ways: first, a number of people scoring, using the average, median or remove the highest level of the average after the strategy, the second is to choose the highest final score of the first few scenarios, and then use the prototype test and other methods to further screen.

At this point, the entire design process has been completed in all aspects, but as outlined in the design is an iterative process, the need for designers to continuously refined the problem, and constantly explore the possibility, and then continue to choose, design a better product.