"With Focus on Human Needs" - Industrial Design Engineering 2004

Edited book, 2004

It's impossible not to design a product. But the fact that an item is designed is of no value in itself. Design can convey the wrong signals and easily suggest qualities which in reality are lacking. Such design is superficial and misleading. Good design on the other hand establishes a positive relationship between people and their man-made surroundings. The role of the designer is to create the conditions requisite for building up such a positive state of affairs. And the deeper the relationship the longer we make use of the product or derive pleasure from it. It's always the individual person (the customer, user or purchaser) that design is intended for, regardless of whether it's a matter of capital-investment or consumer goods, machines, apparatuses or furniture, services or software programs. It's precisely his/her understanding of people which makes the designer an inseparable part in product development.