This chapter addresses the following questions:

• How do abstract ideas transformed to actual products that generate the envisioned experiences?
• What are the underlying design philosophies and principles that drive designers' approaches?
• What are the methods that help keep design processes consistent throughout product development?

To simplify our discussion here, the term concept refers to a phase in the design process which focuses on forming a design approach for the product. Also, let's assume that the idea for the product and its purpose, precede this phase. Finally, the term "design" will be used to encamps all the activities that transform an initial experience concept into detailed design specification.

In general, developing the design concept for product design is approached first at a high level and with an "everything possible" attitude. The designer should have sufficient background information about the product space to support thinking about solving design challenges, while maximizing experience opportunities and minimizing overall costs. The primary audience for concept work is internal: company stakeholders and decision-makers.

Design concepts tend to be bold, visionary, and, occasionally, somewhat removed from business or technical constraints. For designers, this is an exciting part of the project. Once the concept is approved, work commences on the more mundane phase of evolving the concept into a fully detailed design, which must take into account the realities of business and technical constraints.

The sketch and photo in the image above represent the far ends of the concept development process, which often begins with a rough sketch, and ends with the final product. The car is Ford's iconic Mustang, a model that gained many fans since its introduction in the early 1960s. Every few years, the car receives a design refresh. The experience design challenge is significant because of the strong emotional ties that bind this particular car to its fans and loyal customers. The success of the Mustang, in terms of sales and profit, rests primarily on a redesign that communicates to potential buyers the continuity between what they are buying and the design of the automotive legend.

Mustang owners enjoy experiences that extend far beyond mere driving. Owning a Mustang allows them to communicate to the world something personal and important about themselves. The personification of one's personality and identity in what is essentially a competitively priced mass-produced product is the true essence of commercial Experience Design.

A successful design often needs to bridge gaps between experience attributes, which have originally endeared the product to its customers, and changes brought about by technology advances, shifts in customers preferences, and evolving aesthetic sensibilities. Change means evolving the competitive landscape and customers' expectations, so a new design needs to be fresh and bold, while referencing the product's experience heritage.

Projecting a desired image of the brand is an important factor that influences the approach to concept design. For example, designers of established luxury items, while often benefiting from full creative license and access to the best materials and latest manufacturing technologies, must fuse innovation with references to established patterns. A couple of common approaches to doing that are as follows:

• The "understatement" design philosophy is guided by the idea of exclusivity. Only those "in the know", usually also the ones who can actually afford the product, appreciate that the clean, unpretentious, and often old-fashioned looking design cloaks the finest materials, technology, and craftsmanship, with no compromise on quality and full attention to the smallest of details.
  These products are typically very expensive, and the essence of the brand experience they deliver is the exclusive sense of ultimate quality and reliability, a self-confidence that supposedly matches the budgets and sensibilities of the target customers.
• The "bold" statement design, as its name suggests, seeks a complete departure from tradition and flair in favor of emotions such as awe, excitement, envy, and desire. Designers are asked to take full advantage of the finest materials, technology, and craftsmanship, and come up with a unique yet exclusive experience, which is totally new.

Once an experience concept has been approved, the shift to pragmatics is rapid; the transition is not always smooth, and occasionally, the gap between the concept and final product is frustrating. Designers are expected to be creative despite budget and schedule pressures, stakeholders who constantly change their mind about key aspects of the product, technical limitations, and other unexpected challenges.

This is the nature of design--a constant balancing act aimed at minimizing the gap between an aspirational concept and the product that ends up being delivered. There is no set formula to reach an optimal balance because designers operate under a wide spectrum of parameters:

• Processes that worked well in the past do not guarantee future success. Times and circumstances change, the nature of experience objectives changes, as do the people who are involved in the project.
• Processes don't always apply to all industries and all types of design disciplines
• Designers operate on a spectrum that ranges from having complete control over the final product outcome, to having little influence over established processes in the organization
• Designers' personalities and design philosophy guide the methods and activities that make them successful

Design has been evolving for thousands of years, and throughout practitioners developed and successfully used techniques, such as sketching and prototyping, to transform their ideas into artifacts that communicate experience concepts to their clients. Today, digital design tools provide designers with a much extended array of exploration options--such as 3D printing--that enable the rapid evaluation of ideas at lower costs.

As design has become dependent on multi-disciplinary team collaboration, we see a shift in the process of idea generation. In contrast to the designer as the primary source of concepts, the use of ideation and design workshops has gained popularity as an effective generator of valid experience ideas in a team context. One of the designer's responsibilities is therefore to guide the experience creation process by blending the set of available activities in a way that best fits the design project's context.