A Fundamental Shift in the Product Design Paradigm Continued ...
by Michael Davis

The Industrial Design Paradigm Shift

In my estimation, CAID (Computer Aided Industrial Design) will eventually be folded into most mechanical CAD software as either a direct component or as a diverging option. Either way, the days of the standalone industrial design software are short and the paradigm shift has already taken place.

In fact, SolidWorks can be considered a relatively complete CAID system, when paired with built-in animation and rendering capabilities. I have been using SolidWorks as my primary ID package since 1998, and it just keeps getting better. Low cost solutions like Rhino, however still offer additional value to animators and 3D-web modelers.

There are still many design related features to be added to most engineering software programs and probably only a few software vendors will add the necessary support, but the ability of the software to integrate the professions of engineering and design into a single design tool already has occurred. Once the writing on the wall becomes apparent to educators and corporate executives, a new standard will have been set.

I hear the vehement disagreement with the statement above, but my opinion is based on the rapid improvement in operating efficiency of doing design with combined tools as part of a design team. Ivory tower approaches to industrial design will hang on for a long time, but in the end, you cannot separate the professions as much as has been done in the past, especially in light of the ability now for the engineer to do both ID and engineering with adequate training. More than ever, it is becoming evident that design is a singular process integrating ID and ME into one profession, Product Design.

Some nations do not even practice or recognize ID as separate from engineering. Certainly, a strong engineering staff now dominates many of the most successful product design and development firms, once heralded as the mainstay of the industrial designer.

In short, here is what I see happening: A new profession is beginning to emerge. For lack of a better term let me just call that person the Completed Designer. The closest thing to this kind of designer is an entrepreneur who does all his own engineering and design. These are designers who possess engineering and design skills, as well as inventor skills, which enable the individual student to step outside the limits of both professions. The tools for doing so already exist. And a semi-dysfunctional design industry and design education community has mandated the nexus for change. Now what is needed is the restructuring of the education and corporate design system that so stubbornly is looking for a direction.

Industrial designer and entrepreneur Michael Davis is the author of numerous articles on the subject of product design and development, including In Sight of the Design Process, published in 1996. The above article offers an updated view on this subject, through excerpts from a current collection of his writings on the topic. For more information, check out his company website, Headstuf Product Development. He may be reached at: 559-877-7367 or 559-877-7317, or email him at mdavis@headstuf.com.

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