Intentions and Inspiration in Shaping Visual Appearance of Products: The Practice of Professional Industrial Designers in India

Abstract

Eliciting specific intentions and seeking inspiration are important activities in the process of shaping a product’s visual appearance. A survey of the professional industrial designers was conducted to identify intentions (e.g. attributes, emotions) that they attempt to elicit, and also to identify inspiration sources and their media that they prefer not only in generating ideas to realise intentions but also in analysing and communicating intentions. The findings indicate that the designers frequently intend to elicit some specific attributes and emotions. Regarding inspiration sources and media, commonalities as well as differences were observed in the activities - analysing intentions, communicating intentions, and generating ideas to realise intentions.

Keywords:

• industrial design
• design practice
• aesthetics
• intentions
• inspiration

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all the designers who generously gave their time to participate in the study. The raw data used in this study inherently contain sensitive information about the individuals and their organizations, and, as such, cannot be made freely available.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Santosh Jagtap

Santosh currently works in the Product Development Research Lab of the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. He completed his PhD in the field of ‘knowledge management in design’ from the University of Cambridge, UK and an MDes in ‘Product Design’ from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He has previously worked at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology and at the Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, Sweden. He has published his research in journals such as Design Studies, International Journal of Design, Research in Engineering Design, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, and International Journal of Sustainable Society.