Whatever a company is designing, the principle of the Development phase is to prototype and iterate the concept to get it as close to an end product or service as possible. Lessons from each round of development are fed back in through formal and informal communications within the project team and with its stakeholders
In order to reduce costs and development time, companies are increasingly turning to virtual prototyping methods during the early phases of design development. Such methods can range from sketches and renderings to detailed 3D computer models of potential designs. Visual representations are supplemented by physical models made using rapid prototyping equipment or traditional model-making skills.
At the product-based companies we spoke to, the Develop stage included close involvement with colleagues in R&D, materials and engineering departments, and with external suppliers and manufacturers. These detailed insights into materials and engineering requirements help to reduce the number of physical prototypes required and ensure that fewer problems are discovered during testing.
At Xerox, the designers have manufacturing expertise, giving them the ability to assess, together with other experts, what is possible from an engineering or development perspective. The company also uses Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to evaluate potential failures in a design before they take place. The use of FMEA and other analysis methods helps Xerox’s design process in whittling down the number of concepts which are put forward for approval, and can usefully help to manage and reduce the cost of prototyping, engineering and tooling.
Very often, insights from development rounds produce changes in product specifications. As development is often the most lengthy part of the design process, external factors can change too, with shifts in the market or competitor activities requiring late changes in requirements to be met.
In most product-based companies we spoke to, actual manufacturing was outsourced. Liaison with manufacturing partners is often a lengthy process as design and engineering teams ensure that their requirements match the processes available at their manufacturing partners.
In the case of Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Upper Class suite development, areas of the new interior, product and service impacted on cabin crew, so Human Resources, Health & Safety experts and cabin crew themselves were consulted during its development.
There are of course some differences in the development methods used when products are less tangible. The development of software products or graphical executions of campaign materials, for example, also involves continuous iterations and the sourcing and use of new information. In software development particularly, new products can to be prototyped in situ as the designers, developers and user researchers work out ideas and test them themselves and with external users to iterate a solution.
A good example of such in situ prototyping and evaluation is Microsoft’s design philosophy that designers should ‘eat their own dog food’ - encouraging them to work with their own products as they are in development.