Abstract
Toolkits for mass customization can be seen as a link between a consumer and a solution space and enable the user to customize a design to their own needs and desires. The development and increasing availability of additive manufacturing which enables customization and the growing amount of businesses developing mass customization services will direct industrial designers to rethink their role and their tasks in the design process. Customization through digital fabrication technologies is an emerging field where industrial designers have to be aware of and able to design for. There is an ongoing shift from standardization and mass production towards individualization, markets of one and customization. The aim of this exploratory study is to get a better understanding of toolkits for mass customization in order to develop a method for designing customizable products. The experiment conducted in this study invited participants to customize, use and evaluate a kitchen product. We present five core findings from this experiment. This study has identified several issues that play a role when consumers take on the task of customizing a consumer product. The study has also shown potential future areas when it comes to parametric design.
Keywords
mass customization, additive manufacturing, toolkits, co-creation, parametric design, consumer involvement
Citation
Hermans, G., and Stolterman, E. (2012) Exploring Parametric Design: Consumer customization of an everyday object, in Israsena, P., Tangsantikul, J. and Durling, D. (eds.), Research: Uncertainty Contradiction Value - DRS International Conference 2012, 1-4 July, Bangkok, Thailand. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2012/researchpapers/51
Exploring Parametric Design: Consumer customization of an everyday object
Toolkits for mass customization can be seen as a link between a consumer and a solution space and enable the user to customize a design to their own needs and desires. The development and increasing availability of additive manufacturing which enables customization and the growing amount of businesses developing mass customization services will direct industrial designers to rethink their role and their tasks in the design process. Customization through digital fabrication technologies is an emerging field where industrial designers have to be aware of and able to design for. There is an ongoing shift from standardization and mass production towards individualization, markets of one and customization. The aim of this exploratory study is to get a better understanding of toolkits for mass customization in order to develop a method for designing customizable products. The experiment conducted in this study invited participants to customize, use and evaluate a kitchen product. We present five core findings from this experiment. This study has identified several issues that play a role when consumers take on the task of customizing a consumer product. The study has also shown potential future areas when it comes to parametric design.