Introduction - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 3

own house to be designed you will be working so close with the designer/architect that the
information flow is, effectively, synchronous. This is the hardest to manage as the results are
often needed immediately too.
The reverse process, retrospective or evolutionary need , is another name for evolutionary
design. It is based on previous designs that may need improvement by implementing a small
change. It is nearly always based on an existing concept but a small change makes it different,
more desirable, or counteracts an issue. It is often based on customer feedback.
The final form is scavenging need . This is like watching vultures or carrion crows feeding
on a dead animal. Here the need is not to produce something new but to produce something
similar. This is often seen in the fashion industry and in consumer goods by those who follow
but do not lead. This is commonly known as me too . It is said that imitation is the best form of
flattery - one would rather be “the flattered” then “the flatterer.” It is, of course, intrinsically
linked with copying and counterfeit.
Defining the need is, clearly, very important. We will be examining the need and how to
articulate it in more detail in subsequent chapters. This may not seem to be a creative process,
but it is. More often than not, this is the hardest part of the design process. It is hard because
we need to understand the customer, fully. But, and this I can promise, if done properly the
rest of the process will be so much easier.
So - is defining the need design ? The previous paragraph should have pointed you to the fact
that it is the start of the process. What follows next is the highly creative phase called ideas
generation . We then have to select a winner from the plethora of ideas we have generated; and
then we need the detail (or the embodiment) . Only when that is done do we have the makings
of a design. But, as we will see later, we have not finished, as we still need all of the other
elements: packaging, instructions for use, etc., etc., etc. Only when all of this is complete do
we have a design .
So, what is design ? The simple answer is:
It is a process that takes a need and produces the solution that fulfills said need.
And, what is a design?
It is the solution.
Unfortunately we now come to the hard bit. We need to put all of the rhetoric into action; and
as with most human activities it is easier said than done. The rest of this topic is here to make
this a lot easier for you.