Development and evaluation of a novel technological product development tool for education and industry

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Rutherford, Jack Frank and Brisco, Ross and Lynch, Robert (2024) Development and evaluation of a novel technological product development tool for education and industry. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 29 (3). 56–80. ISSN 1360-1431

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Abstract

Few digital product development tools are used in industry and academia compared to their historic paper-based counterparts. This is surprising as many parts of the product development process have digitised such as communication and Computer-Aided Design. Therefore, a gap in knowledge was identified which informed the development of a novel digital product development tool which allows users to undergo the 6-3-5 ideation process to generate concepts. The digital product development tool was tested with participants to gather insights and feedback. The experiment involved focus groups using the digital product development tool alongside the paper-based equivalent to generate concepts and compare both methods. Participants were then asked to complete a survey to receive feedback on the tool. The results indicated that two-thirds of the respondents favoured the digital product development tool compared to its paper-based counterpart. This preference was influenced by the application's capability to store and export concepts, as well as its potential for enhancing learning. Moreover, the digital environment allows for easy storage and reuse of concepts post generation activity, increasing the efficiency of the design process. Additional, lessons learnt for future digital tool development has been highlighted. The use of this tool has promise to support a greater efficiency of design process and ease of learning about the tool and method.

ORCID iDs

Rutherford, Jack Frank, Brisco, Ross ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-9218 and Lynch, Robert;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)