Product Design

Product Analysis

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 Learning objectives
Learning objectives

To learn why product analysis is important,

especially when designing your own product.
The main areas or key criteria to investigate;
namely a product’s form, function, ergonomics,
materials, and manufacturing and assembly
processes.
To learn what sorts of questions to ask when
analysing a product, and how to use them in an
analysis chart.

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Product analysis

Before designing your own product, it is important to analyse

other similar products.
Why?

Researching, analysing and evaluating existing products will

make you aware of any improvements or changes which
could be made to your own design.
Disassembling a product will allow you to research the
relationship between the internal working parts and the
casing (envelope).

What other reasons can you think of?

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Why do we need to analyse products?

Product designers need to investigate how products work in

a lot of detail. The main areas to look at are shown below.

Key criteria
Assembly Form

Manufacturing
Function

Materials Ergonomics

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Key criteria

Identifying a product’s key criteria means that you are looking at its
most important aspects.
For example, in the salad packaging below, some of the key criteria
are annotated.

Packaging has Lid has an

ridges in the airtight,
surface to friction fit
increase strength lid
and rigidity

Recess in
lid to enable Space for
stacking click-fit eating
facility utensils
Can you think of any others?
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Form

When exploring a product’s form, designers will concentrate on

shape and aesthetics. ‘Aesthetics’ refers to a product’s visual
impact – how it looks to the eye. To achieve a certain ‘look’ or style,
designers will experiment with:

T e x tu re
What other aspects of the form of a product can
you think of?
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Form

Many products which were manufactured years ago will now

look dated because fashion changes quickly in today’s
society. However, some designers use this to their
advantage and create a ‘retro’ look which reflects the styles
of previous decades.

The design of many sixties’ products continue to influence designers today.

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Function

A product’s function
determines what it
does. Most products
have primary and
secondary functions.
Product designers
will work to a brief
which, amongst other
things, will set out the
product’s function.

All products have a primary

function. This is the most important
function of the product and will
show the most important key
criteria. However, many products
also have secondary functions.
What are the primary and secondary functions of
the products above?
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Ergonomics

Ergonomics refers to the relationship between the product

and the user. If a product is an ergonomic success, it will be
easy to use, feel comfortable and not present any problems
to the user.
Designers spend a lot of time
making sure that their products
are physically and
psychologically suited to their
user groups, so that the product
does not exclude any potential
users or minority groups.

Discuss the ergonomic differences between these

two kettles.
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Materials
Different materials have different characteristics, and these
will have been carefully considered as part of the overall
design specification. As part of a product analysis, designers
will need to think about:

which how how they how they

specific environmentally are joined have been
materials friendly they are together formed
have been and
used if the parts are recyclable shaped
You may also want to think about whether any other materials
would have been more suitable. Although cost is an important
factor when choosing materials, there are many reasons why
specific materials are used.

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Properties of materials

When product designers use different materials, they must

think carefully about the properties of each material. The
properties of a material make it useful for specific design
situations.

For example, copper is used in electrical

wiring because it is a good conductor.

Acrylic is used for car headlamps

because it has high optical properties
and a high impact resistance.

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Properties of materials

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Materials

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Assembly
This phone has been disassembled to investigate how it fits together
and the relationship between the internal parts and the casing.

What can you say about this phone?

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Manufacturing
A lot can be determined by examining a product in detail if
you know what to look for. Once the product has been
disassembled, ask the following questions:

Can you see any

Could the product
ejector pin marks
have been
Are there any flash on the inside of the
fabricated?
marks showing where casing, indicating
What joining any moulds may have injection moulding?
methods have joined together?
been used? Are there any
SPI codes on
What level of How much of the
the plastic
obsolescence is built product can be re-
casing,
into the product? cycled or re-used?
indicating the
material used?
Could moulds have been used?
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Product analysis

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Product analysis
To establish objective information and offer a fair
comparison, it is important to use the same criteria.
What is the target market? What manufacturing processes
have been used?
How does it look?
(aesthetics) What are the key
criteria?
Where will it be used?
How well does it
What are the primary and perform its purpose?
secondary functions?
How is it
What materials is it Is it environmentally assembled?
manufactured from? friendly?
Answer the questions with regard to the joypad
pictured, and think of any other questions
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Product analysis chart

Use this chart to compare two products. You can use

the questions here, or your own, by editing the text.
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Key points

Analysing products is an essential part of the

product design process.
Key points

The key criteria to look for are:

form
function
ergonomics
materials
manufacturing processes
assembly processes.

These areas can all be investigated in a product analysis

chart, which can be used to help analyse one product, or
to compare many at the same time.

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