Designing a design tool: working with industry to create an information appliance design methodology

This paper details collaboration between the Programme for Advanced Interactive Prototype Research (PAIPR) based at the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (PDR) and three key collaborators: Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Alloy Total Product Design (a UK top-five design consultancy). These partners have been involved in trialling a design method centred on a deliberately ‘low-tech’ hardware product called an IE Unit developed to tackle the problems that designers face when designing information appliances without having the skills to produce working three-dimensional prototypes. The paper uses the IE System’s deployment as a vehicle to draw out lessons that will be of use to a range of research groups tackling similar and overlapping issues.