Design Thinking

Chapter 20Consumer Response to Product Form¹

Mariëlle E. H. Creusen

Delft University of Technology

Introduction

The appearance of a product communicates product information, and also has value for consumers in itself (Bloch, 1995). Product form or appearance refers to the visual exterior design of a product and is often the first information that people perceive about a product. The appearance of a product should therefore attract consumers and communicate the right impression about other product attributes. The visual appearance of products can also be used to express the values of the brand. Ideally, the product form should be recognized as an integral aspect of the product and be addressed early on in the development process. A design thinking approach explicitly includes customer needs—including more elusive ones—in the product development process by iteratively converging on concepts with a high likelihood of market success. Prototypes are made and iterated on based on external feedback (e.g., from consumers), including the appearance of the product in the iteration toward a viable product.

This chapter offers insights that help in making strategic decisions about the appearance of a product. In addition, these insights are useful in creating designs to test with customers, and in interpreting customer feedback in the Create and Evaluate modes of the design thinking framework (see Chapter 1). The focus in this chapter will be on tangible goods. The chapter starts with ...