By the end of this topic, you should be able to...
Guiding Question
How does product analysis and evaluation inform various stakeholders and aid in a product’s future development?
💡Did You Know? Google Glass looked brilliant in the engineering lab, passed every technical specification, delighted the development team—and died spectacularly because they never asked the one stakeholder group that mattered: the people who'd wear them in public.
Why Understand Stakeholders?
No single person understands a product completely. Users experience pain points designers never imagined. Manufacturers know production constraints that make "perfect" designs unbuildable at scale. Engineers identify technical limitations that marketing promises can't deliver. Retailers understand shelf space and packaging requirements. Maintenance technicians see failure modes that emerge after five years of use. Supply chain managers flag material availability risks.
Each stakeholder holds a piece of the truth—and ignoring any perspective creates blind spots that sink products post-launch. When you test a product with diverse stakeholders, you're not seeking consensus; you're triangulating reality from multiple expert viewpoints. A user might say "this handle hurts my wrist," while an engineer explains "the current motor placement creates that torque," and a manufacturer adds "repositioning the motor costs 40% more"—suddenly, you have the complete picture needed for informed redesign decisions. Product analysis without stakeholder input is just one person's opinion scaled up to expensive failure.
Case in Point
When designing the original iPhone, Apple's industrial design team wanted a seamless glass front. Engineers said it was technically achievable. Users (focus groups) loved the aesthetics. But manufacturers warned that Gorilla Glass yields were 30% at required thickness—meaning 70% scrap rate and impossible costs. The breakthrough came when materials scientists (another stakeholder) at Corning reformulated the chemistry, enabling mass production. The final product succeeded because all stakeholders shaped the solution, not just the loudest voice in the room.
Learning Goals
In this topic, you'll learn to identify relevant stakeholders for product analysis, design appropriate methods to gather their insights (interviews, testing protocols, surveys), and synthesize conflicting viewpoints into actionable design intelligence for your IA project.
Linking Questions
Which aspects of ergonomics are vital to establish when analysing the usability of products? (A1.1)
To what extent does the evaluation of products rely on user-centred research methods? (A2.1)
How does the product analysis and evaluation of products that include mechanical and/or electronic systems differ from products without those systems? (A3.3, A3.4, B3.3, B3.4)
Why is it important to know which manufacturing techniques were used to make a product when conducting product analysis and evaluation? (A4.1)
To what extent is product analysis a fundamental aspect of the design process? (B2.1)
To what extent does material selection have an impact on the success of a product? (B3.1)
What types of information can designers gain from product analysis and evaluation in relation to production systems? (B4.1)
Why is it the responsibility of the designer to learn from product analysis and evaluation tasks when redesigning products? (C1.1)
What is the relationship between life-cycle analysis and product analysis? (C3.2)