Greetings from colleagues, the label was sent in today for an audit. Yesterday, as a presentiment, posted a post on Facebook that the design on the computer and product design – it’s about different designs. Today, the case confirms this idea.
Because I was required to do an audit, i.e. not to tell you what was done well, but to note what was wrong, so I looked at it, looked at it, looked at it up, and here’s what I can say.
1). When studying the design, you need to turn off the “taste” – this is good, but this is not good. The expert differs from the average person in that he does not compare what he sees with an abstract standard, which he, as a creative person, can quickly imagine. The expert sees the discrepancy between the design solution and the canons, principles and laws of product design.
2). Expert (not ordinary) reasoning is in a simple scheme:
A beautiful person is beautiful not because I like it, but because:
The proportions of the right are correct. Design has “mathematical logic” (proportions, grid, golden section, rule of thirds, combinatorial, color matching, etc.).
There is a concept of fashion and trends, which, as you understand, is longer in scale than fashion. There are fashion, trends and design.
There is the concept of NPD.
3). There is such a concept and management as NPD – new product development (what is it?), the process of bringing a new product to the market. It assumes, at the first stage, the management of creating a new product and, in the future, control over how the product behaves in the package, on the shelf.
In the hands of the consumer and what reactions it causes when used. Such observation and study leads to correction, if not of the whole complex of marketing, then of design decisions.
The role of a marketer in the NPD team is important, because it is a marketing specialist who connects consumer expectations with the possibility of the manufacturer – in general, and specifically, as applied to the design, the marketer forms and corrects the designer’s vision and vision of “the best” (and they are unique to designers).
4). Before sending a ready-made concept for audit or qualitative research, the following should be done… Take the ready-made prototypes with the design glued to them and go to the store.
Put it on the shelf and take 2 pictures:
- The entire showcase with your prototypes, a common picture
- and big, so that the SKU can be seen by others.
This will be necessary to analyze the concept not abstractly as a “spherical horse in a vacuum”, but in conditions close to the real conditions of sale:
The illumination of the shelf, the size, shape and color of the “neighbors” on the shelf, the readability of the label and a comprehensive perception of the entire product as a single “face”.
5). Photos are taken for the shelf above and below the eyes. This is necessary to understand how the specific shape, size of the packaging and the observer’s view of the design affect it.
Say, is the lid design being pressed or hidden? Most packages have 250-300 grams with wide lids, say, “milk”, cold tea or juices, the problem is that if you look from above, there are no designs, just lids. This is all the more important for yogurts, preserves, which have two working surfaces: a label on the lid and a label on the side of the can.
6). These photos, along with the design – in the office are not discussed with the auditors and experts.
7). Well, since the colleagues have not done so, the problem of label design, which appeared to be just me, and that, because I understand where to look, and which without pictures on the shelf is simply not visible.
Let’s dwell on this in detail, because what I will describe below is the most typical of the problems, visible only on the shelf and, unfortunately, only when the first batch of products has already dispersed in retail.
All of these recommendations, like many others, do not make sense to you colleagues. If:
- The label on the court is presented in the plane, the way it works on the package – it is not clear
2.The packaging didn’t pass the shelf test, which means
- whether the colour scheme of the label contrasts or merges with the labels of competitors,
- Does the packaging look good against the background of well-known and popular brands
What I want to say and what is important … Computer and product design – this is about different things. To create new products, do not look for a designer, but a specialist in NPD.