IntroductionIntroduction to the PreVIZ project| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Jonah Becker: My name is Jonah Becker.
| | 00:07 | I am Principal of One & Co., which is a
San Francisco-based industrial design firm.
| | 00:13 | We have been around since 1998, and we have
worked with very diverse range of industries
| | 00:17 | from consumer electronics to
sporting goods to house wares and fashion.
| | 00:21 | Scott Croyle: My name is Scott Croyle
and I am the Head of Design at HTC.
| | 00:24 | HTC, if you don't know, is
a Smartphone manufacturer.
| | 00:29 | I actually was part of One & Co., and I was
one of three partners and we started together
| | 00:36 | I think about 7 or 8 years ago, but
basically 2 years ago we were acquired by
| | 00:43 | HTC to help them design phones to move more from
an ODM player to an OEM player in the industry.
| | 00:52 | Jonah: Yeah, to me PreViz--it's kind of
interesting to hear it called that--
| | 00:57 | because for us it's part of our everyday process.
| | 01:00 | It's actually what we do and I have often
joked that as industrial designers we are
| | 01:04 | living in the future, because even if it's
something that's very tangible and real and
| | 01:10 | a product that will be on shelves in the
market someday, that's still something that's
| | 01:15 | 12 months, 18 months into the future.
So our whole process is thinking forward.
| | 01:21 | PreViz for us, it's really--it's part
of every step in our creative process.
| | 01:28 | For us, obviously, early on in a project it's
about establishing a vision and a vision that
| | 01:34 | everyone agrees to, the design team on our end, the client,
and any other stakeholders involved in the project.
| | 01:42 | I think the underlying goal is to find that
fuel and direction for the design process.
| | 01:47 | So that means meeting with a client,
understanding their business, their history, their goals.
| | 01:52 | It means understanding their
market and their competitors.
| | 01:55 | It means looking out at other larger trends in
terms of what's happening culturally, what's
| | 02:01 | happening economically, and other world
factors that might impact how people might perceive
| | 02:07 | the technology that they're offering, the product they're
offering, how people are behaving with products and technology.
| | 02:15 | Design project is a dynamic thing and
there are going to be new perspectives.
| | 02:17 | There are going to be points where maybe the
clients going in front of retailers or bringing
| | 02:22 | things to their marketing teams.
| | 02:25 | For us the idea of having a strong vision,
that strong story about why we're doing something
| | 02:29 | and what we're doing from
the start is really important.
| | 02:33 | I think the most important thing for us is
at every step of the way as project deliverables
| | 02:38 | get more and more resolved
and that story is always there.
| | 02:45 | That you don't leave the story in the first
phase and just assume everyone remembers it,
| | 02:49 | because obviously there are going to
be times when a new party is brought in.
| | 02:55 | If they don't get that story and they're just,
get this, here is what it is, what do you think?
| | 03:01 | There is potential for disaster.
We've basically acquired all of the information--
| | 03:06 | what we call the fuel for the design process--
and we've established some sort of agreed
| | 03:11 | vision that we are then going to explore.
| | 03:13 | So in the second phase, which is the
concept phase, that's where we really go as broad
| | 03:18 | as possible, developing the solutions to the problem,
and to address the story that we established in the first phase.
| | 03:27 | That really ranges.
It can be certainly lots of sketching.
| | 03:30 | It can be developing more detailed scenarios.
It can be creating prototypes for mechanisms.
| | 03:39 | It can be creating simulations for product
interactions and how maybe hardware interacts with software.
| | 03:46 | But all of these broad ranges of concepts then
basically during the concept phase get funneled down.
| | 03:53 | So there is less breadth, but more depth to each
of the concepts that remain at end of the phase.
| | 03:59 | The third phase, for us, is the execution
phase and that's where up to that point the
| | 04:04 | concept phase that I
mentioned starts very broad.
| | 04:06 | You have wide range of initial solutions
that are discussed and refined and narrowed down
| | 04:12 | whether it's one final solution or product
that you're designing or it's a line of products.
| | 04:19 | That is at the end of that phase in leading into execution
we want to have complete buy in from everyone involved.
| | 04:26 | That's where the client has to say, okay, we are
ready to make this decision, to move forward on this.
| | 04:31 | We are ready to engage with
the manufacturing partner.
| | 04:33 | We are ready to invest the money needed
to take this all the way into production.
| | 04:37 | In the execution phase, that's where we are
working with the manufacturing partners,
| | 04:42 | the engineering teams, resolving any little
details issues and just mainly supporting that whole
| | 04:49 | process to make sure that the design intent
that was established in the end of the concept phase
| | 04:54 | is maintained throughout production through and
to the point where a product makes it to the shelves.
| | 05:01 |
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1. The Power of PreVIZ at One & CoWhy is previsualization important for product design?| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Scott Croyle: I think the number-one thing is just
stepping back from being immersed in phones
| | 00:12 | every day and thinking about
what people really want.
| | 00:14 | What do they really want?
Do they want a really complicated feature?
| | 00:18 | Maybe 2% of people wants this really complicated
feature, but what's going to hit the sweet spot
| | 00:22 | in terms of how people want to use their phone?
| | 00:26 | Jonah Becker: As designers we start off with these
very low resolution deliverables, quick thumbnail
| | 00:32 | sketches in sketchbooks and illustrations
that over time become more photos realistic
| | 00:39 | CAD renderings, but eventually can end up
in a prototype that you can actually hold
| | 00:45 | and touch that is made out of the real
materials and really communicates the intent.
| | 00:50 | Often, the quality of these mockups can be
as good or better than what you'd actually
| | 00:53 | than if you walked in a store.
| | 00:55 | Scott: I think the design industry has sold
visualization to some extent that, oh,
| | 00:59 | we are going to help you get there faster.
It's going to get there more cost effective.
| | 01:03 | Actually, I look at it the other way around.
I feel like the visualization is a tool.
| | 01:09 | But if you cut corners, you are going to convince
yourself that you're making the right decision,
| | 01:14 | but you might not be making the best decision
for the future of your product or your company.
| | 01:21 | In the particular case of phones, this is
something where a fraction of a millimeter can make
| | 01:27 | a tremendous difference in terms of
they read of the phone. You look at it.
| | 01:32 | How thick is it?
How does it feel in the hand?
| | 01:35 | We actually need to have the
physical model to make the best decision.
| | 01:39 | Jonah: Before they start their manufacturing
process so that we can go back in and refine
| | 01:44 | the design if needed or make these minor adjustments to want
to assure that the quality in the end will not be disappointing.
| | 01:54 |
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| What's your favorite story related to previsualization?| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Scott Croyle: Everybody has been in a
meeting where their phone is ringing,
| | 00:08 | maybe with their manager or maybe with the
CEO, and it's kind of embarrassing, or maybe
| | 00:13 | they are at the dinner table and it's ringing.
There are two elements that are there.
| | 00:18 | One is we are using the proximity sensor
to basically say I'm either face down or I'm
| | 00:24 | in someone's purse and now I notice I have
been picked up, what's going to happen next.
| | 00:28 | And it realizes that I'm
either coming out of the purse.
| | 00:32 | So I should reduce my volume level or
I'm picking it up and turning it over.
| | 00:37 | So I just sense the state change.
| | 00:40 | So you put people in the shoes of something
that they can relate to and they are immediately
| | 00:46 | sold on the idea that, oh, I get the feature.
Of course, it should do that.
| | 00:50 | So it starts with a simple storyboard and
once we've identified that this is a key feature,
| | 00:56 | it's just a matter of going and sitting down with
the engineering team and saying how can we do this?
| | 01:02 | All of a sudden, with that cool idea you get
the engineers wanting to solve the problem.
| | 01:07 | You get the design team
wanting to solve the problem.
| | 01:09 | You get the management team
wanting to solve the problem.
| | 01:11 | I think it's that sort of getting people
excited about how you can solve somebody's big issue.
| | 01:18 | That's really I think the importance of visualization
is that now instead of one owner within a organization
| | 01:24 | trying to champion it, now all of a sudden
you have a lot of owners trying to champion it.
| | 01:28 | Jonah Becker: I think one of the key things or key
parts of the process when we were developing
| | 01:33 | the periodic table is actually going and prototyping and using
the PreViz process to validate that it was a good idea.
| | 01:41 | It's named that, because it's this interesting
combination of sterling silver and reclaimed wood.
| | 01:46 | We start looking at the idea of building
this table and looking at the history of tables
| | 01:50 | and what else has been out there and you
start to see this very typical construction that,
| | 01:54 | you have these metal legs that provide the
structure and support, then you have the wood
| | 01:57 | surface because it's just a nice thing to touch.
| | 02:00 | You start looking at these elements that are
stuck together in a traditional construction
| | 02:05 | and then for us we said, well,
maybe it's worth exploring.
| | 02:07 | Can bring those together in an interesting way?
| | 02:09 | Can you make wood that looks like a
metal or metal that looks like wood?
| | 02:13 | The optimism was that you could take this
natural material that's difficult to control
| | 02:17 | and take this metal that is typically used
in more industrial process and bring those
| | 02:21 | together in a way that's very seamless.
| | 02:25 | So for us it was really about going in and finding lots
of different people who have the ability to apply wood.
| | 02:34 | It's not really a plating technique, but it's
similar to it and really just bringing lots
| | 02:38 | of different pieces of wood, different types of woods, trying
different types of metals, and getting small samples.
| | 02:45 | I mean, the end result is a very large
400-pound table, but we started off with little
| | 02:50 | box of wood and lots of them and lots of
different vendors and different processes and finally
| | 02:57 | to get the result that we wanted.
We wanted these things where it's very tactile.
| | 03:00 | It's very much based on the
materials and the quality of materials.
| | 03:04 | Often with digital visualization techniques,
you can't really capture that materiality.
| | 03:11 | The funny thing is the guy who has the business who ended up
doing it had done the Victoria's Secret runway shows.
| | 03:18 | He had a silver plated a lot of their
lingerie that they're wearing on the runway shows.
| | 03:23 | So he is the one who was not
afraid of plating nontraditional things.
| | 03:28 | Typically, people who are working with
these sorts of processes are used to doing parts
| | 03:32 | on motorcycle and car bumpers and things like
that and he was very much experimental, which
| | 03:36 | really helped us drive the process and the prototyping in
the PreViz process to get to the result we wanted.
| | 03:46 |
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| How do you surface new ideas?| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Scott Croyle: So the way we visualize the fast boot
was we basically laid out a scenario which
| | 00:13 | was an illustrated scenario of sitting on a
plane, turning on your phone, watching your
| | 00:18 | phone boot up, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.
That was really a very simple scenario.
| | 00:25 | Now, to show what the experience
could be, we did the same thing.
| | 00:28 | So imagine if it was this, and we showed kind of it
booting up, parking on the network within 7-10 seconds.
| | 00:35 | I think it was one of those things that conceptually
people are able to grasp how it would benefit themselves.
| | 00:43 | Jonah Becker: For us, that can mean sometimes we're
gathering inspiration from the art world or
| | 00:48 | from the transportation world or architecture
or fashion to bring in those elements, whether
| | 00:54 | it's an imagery, whether it's an actual object,
things that people can look at and touch that
| | 00:59 | maybe are already out in the world and can
be easily understood and help, sort of, add
| | 01:06 | some color and texture to the
presentation that you've created.
| | 01:08 | So if you have a nice rendering, and you are
trying to capture this great material to have
| | 01:13 | something maybe a totally different product
category, but have that material sample
| | 01:18 | next to it and say you see how
beautiful this metal finishes here?
| | 01:21 | This is really what we want to capture.
| | 01:23 | And that's what I'm trying
to show in the rendering here.
| | 01:25 | I think there's always been a certain level
humility as a design from where we realize
| | 01:29 | that our clients have been in their industry and
have more knowledge about their industry than we do.
| | 01:34 | So we absolutely respect what they bring
to the table any amount of information.
| | 01:40 | At the same time, I think collaboration
with the clients is really important.
| | 01:46 | One lesson I've learned is that if you're
doing these offsides or workshops, brainstorms
| | 01:51 | with clients, getting them
out of their office is key.
| | 01:54 | Bring them into our office, which is set up
as a creative space where we have images and
| | 01:58 | objects and inspirational things all over
the place, but maybe more important than that
| | 02:03 | is that I think when clients are in their own
office, they are used to their mode of thinking.
| | 02:09 | I think it's very important for us, just
in terms of that environment to get them out
| | 02:13 | of that and I think it enables them to feel
a little bit more free and not be as constrained
| | 02:19 | by every decision that's
happened in the history of the company.
| | 02:24 | That doesn't mean that you don't go in and edit,
but it provides that space to think freely.
| | 02:30 |
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| Studio techniques for product design| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Jonah Becker: So one PreViz technique that we
used in the concept phase of a project we had,
| | 00:12 | I would say is not a typical process.
| | 00:15 | I think creating personas in the target
customers is very typical for industrial design.
| | 00:20 | You want to know who you're designing for.
| | 00:22 | We took the personas and actually printed
them out full size, so they have these faces.
| | 00:26 | So if you were criticizing a boot that was
targeted for 13-20 year old women, you had
| | 00:32 | to put this up in front of your face so
that you sort of got into that persona, so that
| | 00:36 | you are critiquing it appropriately,
so that you couldn't say like, well,
| | 00:40 | I don't like the pink stripes, because
you're a 43-year-old product manager.
| | 00:45 | It doesn't matter whether you like it, we're
trying to build your brand in a way that you're
| | 00:48 | appealing to all these different customers that
you agreed are the appropriate customer targets.
| | 00:53 | And interestingly enough, what we found is
they ended up using these same tools with
| | 00:56 | their retailers because they would go into
a sporting goods shop and they would find
| | 01:01 | oh, here is the older guy who's running this
shop and he would look at something and say
| | 01:06 | I don't know if I really like that, and then
they would hold these up and say, well,
| | 01:09 | now you are this person, this is the
customer that just walked into your store,
| | 01:13 | now what do you think of this?
| | 01:14 | And it totally shifted the context from
which they would evaluate the product.
| | 01:18 | When we were working with Microsoft on
another project, which was not the Arc Keyboard,
| | 01:21 | but the Arc Mouse which was sort of very
innovative mobile mouse, it had this--
| | 01:27 | it used actually a cell phone hinge to close.
| | 01:29 | So that it could compact down into very
small space for mobility and so we had this whole
| | 01:36 | approach where we wanted to think about this product,
not as a computer peripheral, but as a lifestyle accessory.
| | 01:42 | So similarly, you stop in a cafe to do some
work, you bring out your mouse that is a little
| | 01:47 | bit more equivalent to like the watch you're
wearing or the sunglasses that you set down
| | 01:50 | on the table and not like this little or
mini ergonomic desktop mouse that's supposed
| | 01:57 | to match to the laptop you have.
| | 01:59 | So obviously when you get into that
execution phase, and we're in production and looking at
| | 02:03 | how we really sell this story through, we used
color to really expand and build upon that initial goal.
| | 02:12 | We didn't say like, oh, and here is a black
one and maybe here's someone who is more playful
| | 02:16 | one and is a little bit blue.
| | 02:18 | We presented them as lines of 5-6 colors,
and I think what happened is that built
| | 02:23 | a lot of excitement with
Microsoft's marketing team.
| | 02:27 | And in the end it was launched in all of those
colors, not just one or two colors, but in six colors.
| | 02:32 | So I think that's one case where it was really successful to
be able to use that PreViz technique in that later phase.
| | 02:43 |
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| Advice for product designers| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Jonah Becker: It's okay to do something that's terrible,
because that gives you a reference point for
| | 00:09 | when you have an idea that's really good.
| | 00:10 | So I always encourage them, one, to step back
and review their own work as if it's not theirs
| | 00:15 | or exchange work with another designer sitting by so that
that's a great tool that I actually learned in design school.
| | 00:21 | You would bang your head against the wall
for a couple weeks on a problem and then we
| | 00:25 | would share projects with another classmate and
spend an hour problem solving on some of the key areas.
| | 00:31 | And you have someone who's completely free
to think about your idea and they don't feel
| | 00:37 | like it's their baby, so I think there's--
sometimes it opens people up.
| | 00:40 | In terms of thinking about how to
visualize these concepts and present them, I always
| | 00:47 | encourage young designers to come up with their own
ways that it's--we don't necessarily have a root process.
| | 00:54 | I always want to hear what they bring
because everyone whether the young designer or not,
| | 00:58 | has a certain experience and stories and
things they've seen and done in the past.
| | 01:04 | So, one, I think we provide an atmosphere where even
the young designer can bring something new to the table.
| | 01:12 | But I always encourage them to think about
the person who has never seen this before
| | 01:17 | and he is going to be spending a lot of money
on something. So think about how it's presented
| | 01:22 | and that the story that you know we started
working on in that first phase is still part of it.
| | 01:29 | I think what's key to that is not to have
to work on these deliverables, work on the
| | 01:34 | deliverables and then realize a couple of
hour before the deadline, oh, time to put it in
| | 01:40 | a presentation, because that presentation,
I think is a huge part of it.
| | 01:43 | And I have often told some of our younger
designers that you know you have a lot of
| | 01:47 | crappy designers out there that may be great
salespeople and are doing a great job selling
| | 01:52 | stuff that's not as good
as the work you are doing.
| | 01:54 | So if you are a great designer and not very good at
selling your design, you can lose out in that battle.
| | 01:58 | So it's very important to not only have
great ideas and great design, but also to be able
| | 02:03 | to tell that story and whether that means
bundling it with the inspiration and the story
| | 02:08 | that was defined early on, whether it means
that you are animating how that product has
| | 02:13 | used just to bring the person into the
experience, or whatever the solution is,
| | 02:18 | that that's as important as the actual design.
| | 02:24 |
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| What's the future of previsualization for product design?| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:06 | Jonah Becker: There are a number of things I
can see happening in the future of PreViz.
| | 00:09 | One is I think the speed and resolution
of prototyping is only going to accelerate.
| | 00:15 | We already have a three-dimensional
printer in the back corner of our office,
| | 00:18 | so the designer can build a CAD model and
basically hit print and 4 hours or 2 hours
| | 00:25 | or 12 hours later--depending on what it is--
pull something out of the machine that enables
| | 00:28 | them to actually hold something.
| | 00:30 | So, I can only see the resolution
and the speed of that increasing.
| | 00:35 | I think, you know, that is very tangible.
| | 00:38 | I could see more use of virtual reality previsualization
so that you actually can go into a space where
| | 00:44 | you can use a product in a virtual world,
and get a sense maybe even of the tactility
| | 00:49 | of it, the weight of it, how pressing
certain buttons feels, what happens.
| | 00:55 | And that's something that I think has been
experimented with in other industries, but
| | 00:59 | has not hit the design industry
in any sort of substantial way.
| | 01:04 | I think one of the most important ways that
I can see it happening would be to use PreViz
| | 01:08 | to look ahead and really take a
deep into the lifecycle of a product.
| | 01:13 | I think you know
sustainability issues are huge for us.
| | 01:16 | I think it's in the design world that I
live in, it's very nascent and I think there's
| | 01:22 | a lot that can be done.
| | 01:23 | So to be able to use PreViz techniques to
think about, hey, what happens when a product
| | 01:29 | is 6 months old or 12 months old?
| | 01:31 | Are there ways that we can design it so that
it can actually extend its life cycle?
| | 01:37 | And I think that certainly requires more integration with
manufacturers, engineers, the technology side of things,
| | 01:45 | how you can make something that has more longevity
and is more relevant over a longer period of time.
| | 01:49 | Because I think that's one way that we could
use PreViz to improve the sustainability of
| | 01:55 | a lot of the products we design.
| | 01:58 |
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