Consumer Product Innovation and Sustainable Design

The Evolution and Impacts of Successful Products

Robin Roy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317516842
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Consumer Product Innovation and Sustainable Design follows the innovation and evolution of consumer products from vacuum cleaners to mobile phones from their original inventions to the present day. It discusses how environmental concerns and legislation have influenced their design and the profound effects these products have had on society and culture. This book also uses the lessons from the successes and failures of examples of these consumer products to draw out practical guidelines for designers, engineers, marketers and managers on how to become more effective at product development, innovation and designing for environmental sustainability.

1
Patterns of Innovation

The inspiration for this book was my collection of the British consumer magazine, Which? The magazine publishes independent test reports, advice and other information to the over 640,000 consumers who currently subscribe to it to help them choose goods and services that perform well and offer good value for money. Which? magazine publishes test reports and articles on goods and services ranging from consumer durables such as washing machines, televisions and light bulbs and consumable items such as food, batteries and laundry detergents to services such as hospitals, banks, airlines and financial advisers. Since 1996 the scope of the magazine has been supplemented and extended by reports and advice on a similar range of goods and services on the Which? website.

The magazine was first launched in London in 1957 by the then newly founded Consumers’ Association and has been published continuously ever since. It is now published by Which? Ltd., the commercial arm of the Which? Group. The Consumers’ Association, the charitable arm of the Group, carries out other activities, such as carrying out the product tests and campaigning on consumer issues.

For my research and teaching in the field of product design, I have for many years studied the technical and design evolution of consumer products such as washing machines and bicycles (see e.g. Roy, 1980; Roy, 1999; Roy and Tovey, 2012). I therefore kept my collection of Which? magazines because it, together with the Which? website, provides a unique written and pictorial record of how such products have changed over almost 60 years, which I felt would provide the basis for an interesting and useful book. As well as identifying patterns of innovation and evolution of consumer products, I was interested in whether, when, why and how environmental criteria such as improved energy efficiency became part of their technical specification. I also wanted to discover more about the socio-economic, cultural and political influences on and impacts of consumer product innovations (see e.g. Roy, 1994; Smith, Roy and Potter, 1996; Roy, 1997).

Why this book?

My idea for the core of the book was a series of case studies that would track the innovation and evolution of different classes of consumer product, including the introduction of ecodesign features and sustainability criteria into their specification and their impacts on the environment and society.

The case studies would be based on Which? magazine and online as major sources of information, together with other primary and secondary print and online sources and information obtained from visits to shops and museums and discussions with retailers.

Another aim of the book was to use empirical information drawn from the product case studies to provide general conclusions about patterns of technical innovation and design evolution and the extent to which this information supported existing theories of innovation and design. However, a particular intention of the book was to make use of the evidence of the case studies to provide useful information and lessons for product designers, engineers, developers, managers and marketers and for educators of these professions. These lessons would, for example, provide guidelines on what makes some models and brands of consumer product successful and others market failures; how to design products for reduced ecological impacts; how to take consumer preferences and social behaviour into account in product design, and any general trends that might be useful when planning future consumer products.

How Which? tests consumer products

Before choosing and developing the product case studies it was important to understand how the reports published in Which? were produced. This was done by looking at issues of the magazine from 1957 to 2014, looking at the Which? website and consulting Consumers’ Association annual reports. How the Consumers’ Association conducts its product tests and Which? produces its reports is outlined in the box below.

Which? evaluation methods

To produce its test reports the Consumers’ Association first buys the products to be tested from ordinary retailers and then employs a variety of methods to evaluate them. The methods have evolved over the years, but from the early days they have included laboratory tests to provide objective measures of technical performance; for example, how well a washing machine cleans standard samples of fabric stained with various substances (e.g. oil, ink, cosmetics). Another long-established method is obtaining the views, originally of Consumers’ Association staff then of panels of experts, on products in use in the laboratory; for example, their opinions on the picture and sound quality of a TV set. Other evaluation methods include trials of products under controlled conditions by consumers chosen from panels of Consumers’ Association members. Such trials might involve, for example, users with young children steering different push-chairs around a standard obstacle course in the test lab and/or using the products at home or in other normal environments and then completing a questionnaire on their experience. The Consumers’ Association has also for many years conducted surveys of its members, for example, on product reliability, and gathered consumer feedback on specific products via questionnaires or online.

The results of these various evaluation methods, plus information on prices, product specification and features, are then analysed. Conclusions on which products consumers are recommended to buy are provided in Which? magazine and more recently also online. Over time a system has evolved to combine the various test results and evaluations, which started with a blob or star rating for different measures of performance, convenience, etc. Later a rating that gives a weighted overall score for important consumer choice factors was introduced. For example, a 1995 report on washing machines weighted the test results for cleaning performance, running cost, ease of use, creasing and spinning efficiency to give an overall score out of 10 (Consumers’ Association, 1995). This system then evolved into one that gives an overall percentage score for each product tested. For example, the score for a washing machine is currently based on combining its percentage scores for cleaning performance (up to a maximum of 50%); rinsing (max. 15%); spin drying (max. 15%); energy use (max. 10%); programme time (max. 5%) and ease of use (max. 5%).

From its early days Which? has recommended products that perform well in its tests, naming it either as a ‘Best Buy’ or as offering ‘Good Value for Money’. Today, products that score especially well in the comparative tests and trials – and for which there is no evidence of poor reliability – are still recommended as a Best Buy. These account for approximately the top 20% of products in terms of their performance within a category. Some energy-using products, such as refrigerators, dishwashers and TV sets, that combine a Best Buy performance with high energy efficiency measured in its laboratory tests, are given an ‘Energy Saver’ logo. Other symbols that appear in Which? magazine reports include ‘Worth a Look’ for products that, while not necessarily a Best Buy, performed well in tests, ‘Great Value’ for products that in addition offer excellent value for money, and ‘Don’t Buy’ for especially poor performing, unhealthy or unsafe products (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Which? Best Buy and other product assessment logos

The consumer product case studies

Given the very wide range of consumer durable products that Which? tests and reports on, one of my first tasks was to choose which ones to focus on for this book. I wanted products that represented different levels of technological complexity, different rates of technological and design change, differences in the importance of engineering, aesthetics and ergonomics in their design, and examples of mechanical, electro-mechanical and electrical/electronic products. I also wanted to uncover different social, cultural and behavioural influences on design and innovation and different levels of impact of the products on the environment and society.

My long list of possible product classes included: white goods (washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers); brown goods (radios, television and audio equipment); consumer electronics (personal computers, mobile phones and cameras); other domestic appliances (cookers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers); personal transport (bicycles, prams and push-chairs) and lighting (lamps and light fittings).

The above criteria were then used to select a short list of product classes for the case studies that would form the core content of the book. My final choice also took into account how much the product had been reported on in Which?; the amount of new research that would be involved in developing the case, and likely duplication in the lessons that may be drawn from it and other cases.

The final set of product case studies I chose is: washing machines (Chapter 2); lamps and lighting (Chapter 3); television equipment (Chapter 4); vacuum cleaners (Chapter 5) and mobile phones (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 then presents the general conclusions and the practical lessons for product developers, managers and educators based on the previous chapters.

Innovation and evolution of the bicycle

In order to introduce the patterns of change and types of lessons I want to cover and to provide a framework for researching the other case studies, I will start with a case study of the invention, innovation and evolution of the bicycle; a consumer product with a very long history, which I have studied before (see e.g. Roy and Tovey, 2012).

Case study: the bicycle

The invention, development and evolution of the modern bicycle can be viewed as consisting of three phases: a divergent experimental phase, a dominant design phase and an innovative design phase.

The divergent experimental phase

The origin of the bicycle is unknown. What is known is that in 1818 Karl Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn, a German baron and professor of mechanics, was granted a patent on a running machine, which consisted of a wooden frame to which two iron-tyred, wooden wheels were attached. The rider propelled the so-called ‘Draisienne’ by taking long strides along the ground and steered by means of a handlebar fixed to the front fork and wheel.

The Velocipede

The first ‘proper’ bicycle with pedals, the Velocipede, was invented in France by Pierre and Ernest Michaux and introduced in 1861. It consisted of a lightweight Draisienne propelled via pedals and cranks fixed to an enlarged front wheel. It is said that the Michaux got their idea for pedals by thinking of an analogy; the handles on a grinding wheel. The Velocipede was a key invention and innovation, but bicycles of this type became known as ‘bone-shakers’ because their rigid cart-type wheels gave a rough ride and their weight and direct drive limited speed.

High-wheel bicycles

The next major step in bicycle evolution occurred in 1870 when James Starley and William Hillman patented the Ariel bicycle. The Ariel’s key innovation was its lighter, less rigid wheels with wire spokes and rubber tyres that gave it a smoother ride. Also, the Ariel’s enlarged front wheel allowed the rider to drive the bicycle much faster than the Velocipede.

So-called Ordinary or high-wheel bicycles then took the large front wheel design to its logical conclusion. This wheel reached the greatest possible diameter for direct pedal drive dictated by the rider’s leg length, while the rear wheel shrank in size, hence the nickname ‘penny-farthing’ (Figure 1.2). Its advantages of speed and simple design made the Ordinary bicycle very popular, mainly among young men willing to accept the risk of injury or death due to its tendency t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: PATTERNS OF INNOVATION
• CHAPTER 2 WASHING MACHINES
• CHAPTER 3 LAMPS AND LIGHTING
• CHAPTER 4 TELEVISION
• CHAPTER 5 VACUUM CLEANERS
• CHAPTER 6 MOBILE PHONES
• CHAPTER 7 LESSONS FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS, DEVELOPERS AND INNOVATORS
• Illustration acknowledgements
• Index