14/10/11 Specification

Here we kick off a series of blog posts explaining our design process. Our first post is all about specification.

Specification

Specification is a great start to a project…. Or at least it can be. It shows planning and organisation; there are two types of approach:

Historic Approach

• Make an enquiry or two
• Ponder on all the implications
• Create a detailed list of all features (display/lights/switches/communications)
• Create an even more detailed list of what the features do
• Possibly try to specify some of the key elements in the system

Total number of pages: 3-30+

Agile approach

• Make an enquiry or two to assess overall scale
• Talk to the designers about how the end user will employ the device
• Outline the possible types of user (e.g. end-user, service, installation)
• Indicate areas of success or failure in older or competing products

Total number of pages: 1-2

 

	Historic	Agile
Focus	Product centred	User centred
Management	Micro-management	Clear division of knowledge market vs. design
Speed	Slow planning/commercial implications at each step	Quicker to start and easier to direct to end goal
Base cost	Defined but inflexible	Defined
Variation cost	Proportional to change	Often none
End result	Depends on ability to predict all outcomes	Depends on ability to understand the user

Important background for your specification:

• Investigate your market
• Know your user type(s)
• Have an idea of your intended sales volume
• Consider budget in the light of payback (Return on Investment)
• What are competitors doing?
• How many steps from first design to market (e.g. is there a Proof of Concept or investor stage)?

Posted by: Peter Hawkins on 14/10/11.

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