Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

146 Product Life Cycle

The common stages of life for products.

All products progress through stages of existence that roughly correspond to birth, life, and death. For example, a new type of electronic device is envisioned and developed; its popularity grows; after a while its sales plateau; and then finally, the sales decline. Understanding the implications of each of the stages allows designers to prepare for the unique and evolving requirements of a product over its lifetime.1

There are four basic stages of life for all products:

1. Introduction stage — The official birth of a product. This stage will at times overlap with the late testing stage of the development cycle. The design focus is to monitor early use of the design to ensure proper ...