Articles

Product crossing: designing connections using a product example

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Abstract

Today, more and more products are made with multi materials, hybrid materials and compositematerials to fulfil the more and more requiring product needs. Therefore connections and joints play a keyrole in (product) design. How to connect different parts remains one of the core questions in the design ofproducts. In practice designers often fall back on a few known joining solutions. Tools like a joiningselection software can be useful but can also limit the creativity of the designer. Certainly, in the beginningof the design process. Existing creativity techniques, which are suitable for all types of problems, can beused, but are mostly holistic and superficial. Therefore there is a need for divergent and inspirationaltechniques that focuses on the design of products and their connections. In this paper the authors discussan experimental method called “product crossing”, in which a real product is used as inspiration during theidea generation. The method was tested with several students with different backgrounds (industrial(product) design and mechanical design). They translated product properties and aspects of the exampleproduct in the specific context of their design which resulted in surprising product idea’s. The different testcases are also discussed in this paper.

How to Cite:

Bleuzé, T. & Ceupens, J., (2012) “Product crossing: designing connections using a product example”, International Journal of Sustainable Construction and Design 2(2), 172-179. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/scad.v2i2.20513