Product Styling

Question 1

What is product styling?

Answer 1

Creating visual attractiveness in everyday products

Question 2

What is a more accurate description of product styling?

Answer 2

A design will have visual, tactile, olfactory and auditory attributes that will make it aesthetically pleasing

Question 3

Why is product styling important

Answer 3

Styling is accepted as a way to add value to a product without changing the technical performance.

In some industries it can help the user experience - in the medical sector, less ‘scary looking’ machines help to calm the user.

Question 4

What are the two phases of visual processing?

Answer 4

Pre-attentive phase: the image is scanned for patterns and shapes

Attentive processing: examine the component parts

Question 5

What factors determine product style?

Answer 5

Aesthetic products are said to have immediate appeal/be striking. The consumers judgement on product style are pre-attentive , therefore when thinking about aesthetics we cant just focus on the small details, it mut stand out as being aesthetic.

Question 6

What are the rules of visual perception?

Answer 6

1. Extract visual patterns
   Rule of proximity, similarity and
2. Symmetry rule
3. Geometric form

Question 7

Explain the rule of proximity

Answer 7

Features in close proximity are seen as related.
e.g. the way that circles are places alongside each other determine if they are viewed as columns or rows

Question 8

Explain the rule of similarity

Answer 8

Features of a similar shape, colour or size will be seen as related

Question 9

Explain the rule of good continution

Answer 9

Elements arranged in a line or a smooth curve are related - despite potential gaps along the line these can be easily omitted and the pattern still spotted

Question 10

Explain the symmetry rule

Answer 10

We find it easy to detect symmetry, or lack of symmetry, when viewing an object from an angle

Question 11

Explain the geometric form rule

Answer 11

We can detect simple geometric forms more easily than complex geometry forms

Question 12

Are the symmetry and geometric form rules related?

Answer 12

Yes

Question 13

What is the risks of making the product look too simple/difficult?

Answer 13

People tend to feel too strongly about it - too simple males people feel indifferent and too complex bring negativity. The sweet spot is in the middle.

Question 14

What factors affect how consumers see product style?

Answer 14

1.Gestalt rules of visual perception
2. Sensitive aspects of visual processing - fear responses, golden rations etc.
3. Social, cultural and business factors - how these contextual factors affect our judgement of product style

Question 15

Describe how the social, cultural and business factors affect how consumers see product style

Answer 15

They affect the judgement in styling

Social: Often the something that has just gone out of fashion can be perceived as the least attractive
Business: How the companies image/brand-identity influences the style of a product

Question 16

In which part of the design process should product styling be done?

Answer 16

At the beginning alongside designing the functional aspects and should continue to be considered through the rest of the design phase

Question 17

What are the three things that styling objectives are derived from?

Answer 17

1. Brand Identity
   Product families and predecessors(from the brand) will often have the largest influence on product styling e.g. the overall ford car shape hasn’t changed
   You want to find the sweet spot where you can compete in the market without losing your brand identity
2. Product Semantics
   Linking the visual form to look fit for its intended process - e.g. an iPad for kids looks very different to the apple iPad marketed at adults
3. Product Symbolic
   The visual image that reflects the image of the customer

Question 18

Explain how brand identity affect the styling objectives

Answer 18

Product families and predecessors(from the brand) will often have the largest influence on product styling e.g. the overall ford car shape hasn’t changed
You want to find the sweet spot where you can compete in the market without losing your brand identity

Question 19

What is a semantic differential survey and how is it helpful?

Answer 19

It is used to analyse an idea/design/concept using scales to measure the difference between the words

Helps the user understand what the overalls semantic/feeling that people are getting from the product

How it works:
Select 2 differently styled products that fulfil a similar function to each other(and what you are designing) e.g. a sporty and classic watch.
Set opposing adjectives to describe the designs
Participants will mark their first impressions of the watch - which adjective it fulfils.

This can be most useful WHEN used as a tool to identify which features of the watch are making the users feel a certain way so you know what to include and what not to.

Question 20

How do symbolics affect styling objectives

Answer 20

The visual image that reflects the image of the customer

Question 21

Explain how product semantics determines product styling.

Answer 21

Linking the visual form to look fit for its intended process - e.g. an iPad for kids looks very different to the apple iPad marketed at adults

Question 22

How does the ‘generating form concepts’ product styling tool work?

Answer 22

Designers can sketch a generic model/CAD model to generate many alternative concepts.
You can establish the parameters i.e. height, and then have different permutations of these to then receive feedback on it for which is best for the product

Question 23

How does the ‘product architecture’ product styling tool work?

Answer 23

Explore the arrangement of the functional elements for the product form options:
1. Feature abstraction - identify the features that deliver the main functions
2. The features that are inextricably linked can be treated as one element
3. Systematically rearrange the features of a product according to all the possible permutations(linear, perpendicular, partially/fully embedded)
4. Translate the different lay-outs into concept designs

Question 24

What is the process used in the early stages of product design(styling)?

Answer 24

Working on the pre-attentive sketch
sketching graphical images and highlights what part of it will be eye-caching/what you want to stand out.
This sketch is highlighting where you want the attention to go.