Four dimensions of product designs

Industrial designers need expertise in different aspects of products. In the literature several classifications of product aspects can be found, but as these have different purposes and include different aspects, it is unclear which aspects industrial designers need to consider. To address this issue, this paper derives four overall dimensions of product designs. Next, the paper demonstrates that the four dimensions are broad enough to include the categories found in the existing literature. Thereafter, the four dimensions are translated into four archetypical design strategies. Finally, the proposed classification is investigated through studies of ten industrial designers to support its practical usefulness.