13 Web-Based Do-It-Yourself Product Design
Halimahtun M. Khalid1 and Martin G. Helander2
1 Institute of Design and Ergonomics Application, Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak, Malaysia
2 School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
Mass customization aims at providing
cost-effective products and services to meet individual customer's needs.
An implicit assumption of mass customization is that organizations must
recognize customers as individuals and understand their needs. A central
concept in this regard is the Do-It-Yourself Design (DIYD) approach that
is contemplated in this chapter. DIYD is defined as the selection and configuration
of product/parts by customers on their own. However, information about customer
needs is usually incomplete. To develop and design a catalogue of products/parts
(building the base for configuration) and an corresponding user interface
for the configurator system, customer needs may be based on estimates of
population preferences or global market diversities. In addition, rather
general information concerning good taste, new product needs, easy design
procedures and rules concerning web usability have to be taken into account.
This information may be mapped as functional requirements using a hierarchical
approach. Of particular interest in this context is to investigate appropriate
procedures for customer design conceptualized in different cultures. Thus,
we will investigate in this chapter the top-town hierarchical approach typical
for Western engineering in two separate studies. Malaysian and Hong Kong
participants supported hierarchical design in a Web-based DIYD process of
watches. Additionally, this chapter comments on the design of usable Web
sites and human factors issues for DIYD research.
|
