Knowledge Design: Industrial Design in the Digital Age

Chen Wenlong/Wen Long Chen (General Manager, Haohan Product Design Co., Ltd.)

From time to time, I often heard on the radio that "in the next few hundred days, I will enter the 21st century." The e-mail box is full of news about the end of the century... Inadvertently, we really have to enter from this century. Another century.

Looking at the time of the turn of the century, what kind of environment are we now facing?

- The digital age with new concepts of "speed", "connection", and "non-entity"
- More than 1 million websites have been indexed on the Internet, reaching more than 250 million web pages
- Future calls will be transmitted by the network, not the network by telephone
- Emphasize the new era of knowledge economy and knowledge management.
- Smart Finance will become the main currency of the new era!
- Thanks to the Internet, customers will have more say in what is the future of the product. .

This rapid change in the environment is moving from the so-called "second wave" to the "third wave", that is, entering the information age from the industrial age. The changes of the times will always come with time and space, and the resulting impact is usually clear and the difference between them can be divided! Our ancestors have been transitioning from the “labor-intensive” agricultural era (the first wave) to the “machine-based, factory-based” industrial era (the second wave, 1760-1950), which has already caused humans to live and work in the environment. On the very big changes, such as mass production, environmental pollution, the emergence of trade unions and urbanization, the banking system ... so some people call it the era of the Great Revolution. What kind of impact will there be on the "third wave"? Many experts have pointed out that the revolution in the Internet (since the birth of the web browser in 1994) has forced us to change our thinking mode. The challenge for the new economic activities is not only to manufacture but also to think through services. , information, individual services and sensibility to improve the product's "intangible value" to meet consumer expectations and ideals. The era of digitalization is due to Blur (fuzziness of desire, resource obfuscation), which makes new products start from the demand, and the process of designing R&D to the completion of listing is gradually blurred and integrated into a consistent operation!

In the face of these changes, industrial design, of course, should also adjust its direction of thinking and its role. Perhaps it needs to make changes to the tools, methods, and frameworks used to prepare for the arrival of the digital age!

Want to talk from two perspectives:

From the perspective of enterprise vendors:
Customization will be the key to business success or failure! Trends show that consumers will be more and more willing to purchase products or services with intangible value: even at a higher price, they don't even have to own and try! For example: amazon.com This new virtual bookstore makes books a trusted, convenient, fast, and freely available space. Watches from G-Shock or SWATCH become a special value device and ethnic logo. Steven Spielberg's set up DreamWorks ( Dream Works SKG) has become a sought-after target for investors before it has been completed! Both show the power of invisible value!

We can discover that the intangible value is usually based on the organization’s innovation, brand, and trust relationship with customers. Especially in today’s Knowledge Economic society, manufacturers or companies need to be able to quickly grasp consumers. The demand for information and the trend of the environment, but also have the ability to "knowledge capital" in order to convert "tangible value" into a higher "intangible value"!

However, what is intellectual capital? In general, “data” is an unproven phenomenon or event. Connecting the data as a group and summarizing related causal relationships becomes “information” (in the digital age, information will flow from the Internet to our desktop. Desktop). The Know-How at work is used to edit and analyze information as a basis and a guide for decision-making. The power of this transformation is knowledge.

An organization can integrate the experience, creativity, intelligence, and ability of its employees, partners, and suppliers into effective tactics, successful products, or novel technologies. These strategies, insights, and innovations can be expressed. The company's differentiated and specialized operational management capabilities are the organization's intellectual capital (Intellectual Capital)!

From the perspective of consumers:
One of the reasons why consumers react to products is that they come from “emotional”, which is the direct reaction to the beauty and ugliness and the feelings of affection and preference. This is related to the personality, sensibility and growth background of each individual consumer, of course. For the "cluttered or neat" "simple and complex" "simple and complex" "soft and hard" "fat and thin" these likes or dislikes that are common to the crowd's visual experience can also be part of the emotional response: let on the service The emotional feelings consumers receive are more direct and common responses!

It also comes from the "cognition" of the product. It will be a common value formed by the influence and education of the outside world. It may also be a popular trend. The reason for this is the need for manufacturers to operate and shape their businesses long-term and continuously. For example, consumers' perceptions of brands such as NIKE, BMW, and ALESSI...represent a special style and meaning.

Because consumers' reactions to emotions and cognitions influence and even determine whether they will approach products, services, or stay away from or purchase behavior!

In view of the above perspective, in the new information digital age, enterprises and enterprises (BtoB), enterprises and consumers (BtoC), and consumers and consumers (CtoC) will form a faster connection between information. , More extensive linkages and interactions will also be less substantive. The value and price of “smart capital” owned by various companies in the market will depend on the interaction between the goods and consumers that the company has transformed. The success or failure of the results!

Therefore, if an organization can establish a system to allow the information acquisition environment to be based on an adequate and effective internet & intranet, it can keep abreast of the direction of development of new products and consumer demand, and form information and information. decision making! Once the design work is unfolded, it can communicate with the customers in real time on the design proposal, such as connecting the target with the target of the virtual prototype of the computer and link them emotionally. The reaction of intelligence to the feedback of intelligence, the information and intelligence through the enterprise's "smart capital" design team for the case analysis, and for the design prototype for the next version of the revision and adjustment, so after resumption of communication and modification should be Can introduce the best products and decisions!

As a result, the process of designing and developing an industrial design may be the same as that used by Lotus in the development of Domino software. First, it provides end-user trials through the Internet, and then the user's feedback is used to interactively and repeatedly correct: Synchronous participation in the design and development of new products before the market has already solved the software design unexpected problems!

Industrial design and aesthetics, engineering and business are all related. In the past, although product design has always been centered on the “consumer” structure, due to the inconvenience of information acquisition and interaction, professional development often occurs at the decision-making meeting. Conflicts and hesitations among units and even senior executives! The main reason is that there is not enough information directly from the "consumer" to worry about and make doubts about the decision making! Applying a new digital information environment to solve it should be a new opportunity, but because it is implicated, it is not just “know-how” - the application of technology, but also the “know-why” consensus within the organization. Establish and take care of at any time - Concerned about changes and applications of new technologies, so how does industrial design face the advent of the digital age? How to make K-design? It should be a huge change in Innovation!