DESIGNING *for humans

IDSA.org Human Factors Resources

There is a searchable index of Innovation magazine.  Results include the article title, author and issue, but article content is not available:

http://www.idsa.org/innovation.htm

The IDSA online bookstore (links to Amazon.com), has a collection of human factors-related titles:

http://new.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=208&z=57

Acoustics and Product Design: An Introduction

This is the first in a periodic series on sound and acoustics in product design.

Industrial design focuses primarily on the visual and tactile presentation of form.  Product designers typically have little training around the auditory characteristics of product design.  Even in cases where sound is a key characteristics of a product (e.g. a radio), much of the decision-making around acoustical characteristics are made separately from that of the overall product design.

Should sound be an important aspect of product design?  And if so, what role can product designers play in this?

The shift in recent years from "product design" to "experience design",  has placed an emphasis on design beyond the basics of the product itself.  That is, all elements of a product - it's function, aesthetics, even maintenance, need to be considered from a design perspective.  Similarly, supporting experiences delivered through advertising, packaging, instructions, technical support, etc.should consistently reflect a comparable qualitative experience.  In other words, design consideration needs to be applied to a user or customer's entire interaction throughout the product's life-cycle.

Designing the acoustical aspects of the product experience is a natural extension of product/experience design.  We can consider three aspects to the acoustical design of a product:

• Primary Acoustical Characteristics - These are the sounds a product produces through it's intended usage.  They may be manually, mechanically or electronically generated.  Examples include the on/off click of a light switch, the whirr of a drill, the dial tone of a phone or the snap of a camera.
• Secondary Acoustical Characteristics - These are sounds that a product produces beyonds its basic usage.  For example, when removing it from its packaging, or transporting the product. 
• Negative Characteristics - These are undesirable sounds that are produced through product usage: the wind noise in driving a car, the hum of an electrical device.

Each of these aspects can be considered in the design of product and will be covered in subsequent articles in this series.  Note that many of the sounds we associate with products were not intentionally designed.

Next time: Some basics on acoustics

Top Industrial Design Schools

The top rated undergraduate programs in industrial design by the 2006 DesignIntelligence rankings:

Undergraduate Industrial Design Programs

• Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.)
• University of Cincinnati - http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=3443
• Pratt Institute (New York City)
• College for Creative Studies (Detroit) (tied with Rhode Island School of Design)
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cleveland Institute of Art
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Syracuse University
• California College of the Arts

As a graduate student in Human Factors at the University of Cincinnati I took classes in the industrial design program - although at the time it was not a large part of the ID curicullum.  I wonder how many of these top schools give human factors and design research significant emphasis in their required coursework?