One of the basic assumptions of my PhD’s hypothesis is that as rapid manufacturing technologies (by which I mean, primarily, 3D printers) become more affordable, and as the quality of parts they produce approaches that of mass manufacturing technologies, consumers will want to start using them. They’ll begin by taking products apart and making their own plastic covers, then sharing or selling the files so that others can recreate their designs. Part of my research is likely to look at what position manufacturers and brands take towards this consumer enthusiasm – do they embrace it or do they try to stamp it out. But assuming that at least some companies are enlightened enough to take the first position, another significant question is how consumers will actually begin to design their own products.

According to Alison Black of the UK Design Council,

“The central premise of user-centred design is that the best designed products and services result from understanding the needs of the people who will use them”

Rather than relying on market research or simply gut feeling, a user-centred design approach requires the designer to engage directly with the consumer, interviewing them about their specific requirements and observing them in situations where a proposed product would likely be used. Other designers have taken this even further, advocating the inclusion of users in the design process, critiquing designs and adding ideas of their own in a sub-category of user-centred design often referred to as consumer co-design.

Direct consumer involvement in the design process takes many forms, and is the subject of a significant amount of academic research (Google Scholar finds 3660 unique references for consumer co-design). In my own experience I ran a design project for Nokia in which we worked with the Team Finland adventure racing team to design a product suitable for outdoor enthusiasts, watching the athletes train and compete, asking them to describe their preparation and what they valued in the equipment they used, and inviting them to review specifications and concepts for the product. In mass customisation, co-design generally refers to the use of toolkits or configurators, which allow consumers to specify certain elements of a product such that the end result more closely matches their requirements. But what all approaches to co-design assume, along with user-centred design itself, is that the industrial design should essentially remain unchanged.

In an idealised user-centred design process, the brief will be written in the full understanding of what the user believes to be important. The designer will work to, or perhaps challenge, the brief based on observations and discussions with consumers, who will be invited to comment on concepts and designs. In itself this is challenging to some designers, who feel that part of their expertise lies in knowing what consumers want, or that consumers have no taste, or even that consumers don’t know what they want until they see it. But in the end it’s still the same process, one in which designers have the expertise, designers control the tools and designers make the final decisions. What I’m suggesting is that as rapid manufacturing technologies become more visible, consumers are going to take the design process into their own hands whether professional designers like it or not. And we should start looking at the tools and processes which will enable this.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming that everyone will be able to do this or even that everyone will want to. But enough will want to do it that the design process will have to change. Professional designers will continue to be the experts, but that won’t stop amateurs having a go. It’s true that most consumers have no taste, but it doesn’t stop them buying and it won’t prevent them designing once they have the opportunity. The question is whether industrial designers themselves will lead this change, or whether they will be dragged into it kicking and screaming, all the while protesting that change is unnecessary, in the same way that the music industry has been.