Video Reflection 1

David Kelley TED Conference 2002 :: "The future of design is human-centered"

David Kelley introduces us to a new and already concurrent stage in product design. He showcases exciting new formats that product design has adopted in order to meet the needs of contemporary consumers, while emphasizing the importance of designers to understand the consumers requirements through interaction with the product. Kelley encourages initial designer interaction, as shown in the cubicle space example where designers interacted with conventional office cubicle spaces. From this we can fully understand the crucial requirements that bridge the gap between technologically advanced products and how consumers ultimately interact and associate with them on a far more personal level than in the past.

Customers nowadays have become accustomed to the breathtaking speed at which technology is discovered and applied to our everyday products. They desire a feeling of involvement which is achieved by a degree of action from the user with an exciting object. Examples of this are shown in the highly unique Prada New York store, where shoppers are exposed to an entirely new 'space-age' shopping experience from the moment they enter the store and start browsing to the moment they leave.

In regards to the future of industrial design, I believe it is exciting and promising. As technology advances consumer interaction experiences stages of development too. Can we draw a line as to when consumer involvement in the product has reached saturation point? Or will products evolve to the point of where the consumers actions are the dominant basis for the design, and the product has become the smallest mechanism or medium for achieving the most cutting edge experience?

Personally I feel that Kelley suggests that technological limitations are not the only boundaries of product design today. He draws light on the importance of integration of technologies and the element of user interaction, so that users are involved and engaged in the product. Design has always been about products and their innovation, however a whole new commodity that we must consider when designing is the overall experience the consumer has, from start to finish.