25 Bad Habits of Industrial Designers

Design Articles
Posted by DT
Dec 26, 2007
(35 comments)









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Image: Thumbs Down by CraigPJ

About time I got to this one and I though it makes a great post to face the year end with!

I also hope to keep this as a living document that gets constantly updated (with additional input from all my readers), and a good reference guide for industrial designers that want to learn to rule the world!

1) Looking at other products for inspiration.

2) Not creating or studying the design brief.

3) Not checking if the concept fulfils the design brief.

4) Spending too much time on the computer.

5) Not improving their sketch communication skills.

6) Not improving their verbal communication skills.

7) Not making a concept model because they were lazy or not wanting to get dirty.

8) Coming to work late.

9) Not understanding that a design is not theirs but the company’s.

10) Getting too emotionally involved in their designs.

11) Not being friends with Engineering.

12) Forgetting to compromise.

13) Not being friends with Marketing.

14) Mistaking arrogance for confidence.

15) Forgetting Industrial Design requires multi-disciplinary skills.

16) Being disorganized in mind and/or space.

17) Poor Time management.

18) Not planning a 3D construction process before doing 3D modelling.

19) Designing in a 3D program.

20) Forgetting to document their work.

21) Forgetting that there are costs impacts to design decisions.

22) Not including draft angles and part lines in 3D models or design files.

23) Forgetting to save work or worst deleting it by accident.

24) Not thinking through a design to the very end and it gets ripped to shreds.

25) Forgetting that a presentation board is also a design element.

Edit: User submitted content!

26) Over satisfied with the first design. (by Design Monkey)

27) Sketching the same design over and over again. (by Design Monkey)

28) Making things that can be produced instead of creating “insanely” great products. (by Idris Mootee)

29) Forgetting the goal of design is to improve not just make something different. (by Dave Pinter)

30) Being apathetic to sustainable and green design. (by Dave Pinter)

The following four are by Raghuraj Ananthoj with some editing on my part.

31) Not understanding if the form inspiration is appropriate to the form being created.

32) Failing to understand the brand philosophy of the company.

33) Not building a good relationship between fellow designers by sharing knowledge and work.

34) Avoiding critics, which can help improve the current design and other product features.





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  • Comments

    Design Monkey
    Dec 26, 07 – 5:46 pm

    bad habits of ID No. 26: Over satisfied with the first design.
    No. 27: Sketching the same design over and over again.

    Nice article you have DT! Happy New year!

    DT
    Dec 26, 07 – 7:43 pm

    Hi Design Monkey,

    Thanks that is fantastic! Thanks!

    Idris Mootee
    Jan 02, 08 – 1:15 am

    The wosrse habit of all is when an Industrial Designer stops thinking that his/her mission is to create “insanely” great products rather than makign things that will be produced.
    This is a great blog.

    DT
    Jan 02, 08 – 7:39 am

    Hi Idris,

    Thanks for your comment and for visiting. I myself enjoy visiting your blog.

    interaction design
    Jan 04, 08 – 12:29 am

    Sweet list, could be a ‘don’t do list’ in each industrial design studio! Thanks for your post!

    Niels.

    michael von klein
    Jan 07, 08 – 3:34 am

    Thanks! very helpful for all designers ! I publish it im my studio !!

    Dev
    Jan 07, 08 – 4:21 am

    I’m guilty of most of those! New Year resolution time!

    DT
    Jan 07, 08 – 7:51 am

    Hi guys,

    Thanks for the great comments, I hope the list can help and perhaps be a little tongue in cheek as well! Please do post it on your websites/blogs if you have any.

    Please keep do in touch?

    Andrew Reynolds
    Jan 07, 08 – 11:16 am

    This will help lots of industrial designers realize
    the bad habits that they are doing. But then, not all of the designers are like that. I have lots of friends who are designers and they’ve been doing great job! :)

    DT
    Jan 12, 08 – 7:27 pm

    Hi Andrew,
    Thanks for your comments and please keep in touch.

    Dave Pinter
    Jan 13, 08 – 12:03 am

    Two more overlooked points:

    Forgetting the goal of design is to improve not just make something different.

    Being apathetic to sustainable and green design.

    DT
    Jan 15, 08 – 7:48 am

    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for dropping by and leaving your wonderful comments. I will add them to the growing list. Please keep in touch.

    David
    Jan 18, 08 – 7:54 pm

    Your all full of contradictions! You seem more committed to corporate lackeys than anything else. Record keeping, time management, inter-departmental communication? Where all still adults here, right? Besides, I don’t think “Design,” or even “Art,” works a nine-to-five to satisfy any of this.

    For example:

    28) Making things that can be produced instead of creating

    DT
    Jan 18, 08 – 9:59 pm

    Hi David,

    Thanks for your comments. I think you might have misunderstand the intention of this post. It is meant as a list of 25 possible bad habits industrial designers may or may not have. Also this list does not signify that there is one designer with all of the above habits. More often than not it is a mix and match of different habits that a designer has.

    However I would like to address thepoints that you highlighted:

    You seem more committed to corporate lackeys than anything else. Record keeping, time management, inter-departmental communication? Where all still adults here, right? Besides, I don

    Mohammad T. Tayeb
    Mar 05, 08 – 1:43 am

    I agree with all the above…

    accessible website design
    Apr 15, 08 – 12:44 am

    I have to constantly remind myself of 9,10, and 12.

    Its hard though since we put so much time into our designs. You can’t help but feel attached.

    H-ART Pink Maniacs
    Apr 23, 08 – 4:49 pm

    [...] designsojourn.com , a nice design blog with a lot of interest articles) 1) Looking at other products for [...]

    Raghuraj Ananthoj
    Apr 29, 08 – 7:03 pm

    Hi,

    This is really a good article to publish, the matter of fact I wouldn’t call all of them bad. However few of them are really important to be noted as bad habits and often it has been that I have found and spoke to designers about their creation of artefacts but alot them fail to understand few things and I would like to add few more points,which are the following…

    1. Not understanding the form- styling clues derived or inspirations incubated in the design are appropriate to their form creation.

    2. Failing to understand the brand philosophy of the company, which is not cited in the product.

    3. Not sharing the knowledge and work with fellow designers, which fails to build a good relationship between them.

    4. Avoiding critics, which are important to understand and improve the current design and other product features.

    Overall i feel that the list would continue…good work DT.

    R> Hodges
    Jul 12, 08 – 3:04 am

    I have experienced 9 & 10, not good !!!
    You Don’t know it’s a mistake til you make it…
    Great site and Thanks

    DT
    Jul 14, 08 – 5:40 pm

    Hi all,

    Thanks for the feedback. I’ve updated the list to include the 4 suggested by Raghuraj.

    powers
    Sep 01, 08 – 9:17 am

    Yes, well, some of these bad habits are what make us designers. I would agree more with

    “This whole list comes down to just one rule:

    12) Forgetting to compromise.”

    Well said.

    ID @ NUS
    Sep 12, 08 – 11:47 am

    [...] Design Sojourn published a list of 25 bad habits of industrial designers: 1) Looking at other products for inspiration. [...]

    Michael
    Oct 03, 08 – 11:06 pm

    DT,
    I liked your post and it’s cousin, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Designers. However, this laundry list ended up coming off as a bit of a downer. You inspired me to write Five Great Qualities of Industrial Designers as a pick me up. Let me know what you think!

    http://www.michaelroller.com/?p=31

    Rogue
    Dec 15, 08 – 5:37 am

    DT,

    I was curious to know if you could elaborate more about your list topper:

    1) Looking at other products for inspiration.

    Also, does this encompass the products which are evaluated to inform one’s self about the pros and cons of the current competitive landscape?

    DT
    Dec 18, 08 – 12:12 am

    Hi Rogue,

    That is a great question, and I will be reproducing my answer in a post. Do stay tuned.

    [...] Sojourn’s readers left a question in the

    [...] Sojourn’s readers left a question in the

    dmk
    Dec 30, 08 – 5:37 am

    Nice article. I have a couple more:
    * document concept, communicate concept
    * effective user-centered research is fundamental to good design.

    berk
    Mar 26, 09 – 12:19 am

    thanks, this will really help me with my new starting career

    Andrew Keir
    Jul 09, 09 – 1:42 pm

    35) for me would be putting too much time into an idea, then pursuing it because of the time investment when i knew i should have given it up.

    Cristian
    Sep 29, 09 – 3:59 am

    8) Coming to work late. :P my sin…

    Mario
    Sep 29, 09 – 4:00 am

    The sin of various of us

    Roberto
    Oct 14, 09 – 11:10 pm

    There’re a lot more, but the list is fundamental.

    Liviu
    Feb 02, 10 – 6:52 am

    Does 28 and 29 appear to be in contradiction or is it just my wrong understanding?
    This list is not so easy to follow for a beginner, but still very useful reminder.Thank you for sharing.


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