Dan Formosa of Smart Design, Designer Q&A

Dan Formosa is a consultant in product design and design research. He is a co-founder of Smart Design and has developed successful products in a wide range of categories for companies worldwide. Dan holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, and both a Master of Arts and a Doctorate in Ergonomics and Biomechanics from New York University. This interview is part of Design Droplets coverage of AGIdeas 2010 where Dan Formosa presented on 28th of April 2010.

1. Dan, Welcome to Design Droplets. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, could you please give a quick introduction on yourself.

My background is in design, and also in ergonomics and biomechanics. That means I have always been interested in the “human” side of design – how design can affect our quality of life, improve performance and affect behavior. One of my first jobs out of college was joining the Eliot Noyes office to design the first IBM PC. That was 1977.

CIMZIA Pre Filled Syringe (photo: Smart Design)

2. You are one of the founders of Smart Design could you please give us a quick run down on Smart Design?

Smart Design was started primarily by several people who went to college together. It was a collection of friends. The grouping was initiated by Davin Stowell, who was working with Corning Glass, and included Tom Dair and Tucker Viemeister. Davin was taking on early projects and was busy enough to require additional help. We based our methods on the type of approach we were carving out at school – that designers should be hands-on, and that design should be about understanding people as opposed to things.

In a very early project, Davin defied marketing research at Corning Glass by designing a single serve, freezer-to-stovetop item called the GrabIt Bowl. While it initially failed their marketing studies, the design group persevered and it went on to become Corning’s best selling product ever.

In the first project we all worked on as a group, also for Corning, we undertook an ergonomic design problem in which we pulled together techniques in biomechanics and cognitive psychology. This was a type of an approach that no other design group was undertaking in the US at the time, so it was an early test of our beliefs about what and where design should be. It was very successful and laid the basis (and provided the needed credibility) for our approach to design, and for much of our future work.

Throughout the 1980s we touted the concept of “design for everyone,” often a battle to convince companies that design had that sort of potential – and also that design research was an important factor that can lead to innovation, benefitting consumers and the company we were working for (Most companies at the time regarded design as a superficial coating, applied at a point in the project when it was too late to make a meaningful impact. And designers never interacted with consumers – that was marketing’s job.)

By the early 1990s our point had been well made.

For Corning Glass Works, Serengeti sunglass line 1985 (photo credit: Smart Design)

3. Who and what inspires you?

My personal attitude towards design is very much influenced by the fact that I grew up in the baby-boom age, born in the 50s with childhood and teen years in the 60s. The student movement in the 1960s, and into the 70s, called for changing everything. We had very little respect for authority, so even now I like the idea of breaking rules. Inspiration comes from many fields, but based on people rather than things – and that can mean anyone from a musician to a political figure.

4. Smart Design has designed many products, services and experiences across many different areas, what are the advantages of working across a variety as oppose to narrowing yourself to designing and specialising in one area (e.g. consumer electronics)?

Since our focus is designing for people, then that is the common ground. The same surgeon performing a delicate hospital procedure will also be home barbecuing for a party that weekend. While the product, situation and context might be very different, the people remain the same. Some people may be surprised how much we borrow or adapt design ideas, or make direct connections, between products or situations that, on the surface, seem quite different. If, for instance, we know how to design kitchen tools to include people who have arthritis, we also know a lot about accommodating the hands of female doctors, who often have difficulty using medical instruments historically designed for male doctors.

Ford Smart Gauge - Designing better drivers. (photo credit: Ford Motor Company, 2009)

5. Can you walk us through the development of something like the UCB/OXO Cimzia Prefilled Syringe or the Powermat Wireless Charging System, and in the process shed some light Smart Design’s Process and Design Methodologies?

We worked on a string of projects lately where we had a chance to “reinvent the wheel.” One of them is the Ford SmartGauge. Ford asked us to develop the interface for the instrument cluster on their 2010 Fusion Hybrid. For the first time they were incorporating two LCD panels, to each side a mechanical speedometer, as opposed to the mechanical gauges they have always used. Their request called for creating an “emotional connection”. We made a different recommendation – since driving style makes a big difference in fuel economy, we can help save fuel by developing an interface that would feed back proper information to the driver. So for the first time ever, the instrument cluster is telling the driver not just about the car’s performance – it’s telling the driver about the driver’s performance. This coaching is helping drivers get more than 10 additional miles per gallon.

With the OXO/Cimzia syringe, we set our goal not on the physical device itself, but on “compliance”. Our ultimate goal is to help get the self-injected medication successfully into each patient, once a month a prescribed. This sounds like a subtle distinction, but it makes a big difference in our design focus. We’ll automatically talk more about the people than the product, knowing that each individual’s perception and physical ability can have a significant impact on our overall goal. Our concepts and design directions follow accordingly.

6. Smart Design was founded in the 1980′s and has since grown it into a global leading product design company, what advice would you give to today’s designers who are setting out to start a design business?

We’re seeing a lot of acceptance of work methods that, even if appropriate ten years ago, are now obsolete. Many design groups will tell you they have a special “propriety” process that will lead to innovative solutions, when in reality most designers follow a common process. We also see too many design groups still following the lead of marketing research, no doubt because in many cases marketing groups within companies fund design projects. Marketing research is not design research, and there is so much to be done to advance the potential of design. I would therefore suggest that designers starting a business stand for something. Set out on a mission, have a passion for design and a vision of where they want to take their profession. Given that, stand by those convictions.

Johnson & Johnson Wondergrips Toothbrush (photo credit: Smart Design)

7. You have said previously that at Smart Design you “don’t care about the average people, we look at the extremes.” Can you expand on this? Why are people in the extreme more important to product designers than average people?

The average person provides little help for design. It’s a bit of a culture clash we have always had between marketing groups and our design team. Marketing often targets an average consumer, or subgroup, often defining that average in specific detail. For design, however, that average provides little information. For instance, design a doorway for an average person and half the people will bump their heads. We have always seen lots of opportunities in design by understanding the ends of the spectrum, not the middle. The slowest and fastest, novice and expert, shortest and tallest, and so on.

More specifically, we have taken an approach maybe even more unique. Many companies design for an average person, or a “persona” (an often used technique in which a fictional person is described, and given a name, based on a culmination of many people). I personally was never able to warm up to these fictional representations. Instead we have taken the approach of designing for a small group of actual people. We’ve been calling this approach “Six Real People,” although in reality the number can be six or more. It turns out that designing a product or service that six actual people love is far more difficult than designing for a fictional average or persona.

8. Quite a few of your peers (at other global consultancies) have recently been writing books on their experiences and methodologies, is this something we might expect to see from you in the future? And how important do you think it is for designers to share knowledge about their practice with others through mediums like books, blogs, videos etc…?

Definitely important. We’ve been sharing a lot of information – points of view, approaches to design, and specific design methods. But mainly this has been happening through conference talks, workshops, special lectures and online whitepapers. The book discussion has been coming up more and more often recently. So maybe.

We are also big fans of blogs, since they provide such a continuous, fluid means of communication – and often two-way. Also video. We have been getting much more into that medium, and will continue to do so.

XM Satellite Radio (photo credit: Smart Design)

9. What are your thoughts on the current state and trajectory of Industrial Design and Product Design, globally, as a profession?

Design can be a tremendously powerful force. While some people are pioneering efforts to realize that potential, many design groups are simply following past established protocols. Overall I see a bit too much timidness in the profession, a bit of insecurity and an unfortunate desire to “belong” rather than to stand out. In reality design has the ability to significantly affect human performance and behavior. It can also save energy, bring people together and improve lives worldwide. Designers as a group have the potential to fulfill a social responsibility, the extent to which still may be underestimated.

While some very noble efforts are recognized (at both the top and bottom of the world’s “pyramid”) they are often not leveraged to the extent they could be. Much of design is still a closed loop, with “outsiders,” such as financial, business and political leaders, just starting to appreciate its potential impact. So while the trajectory is pointing upwards, that line is not nearly as steep as it could be as we enter the 2010s.

Microsoft Windows Structural Packaging (photo credit: Smart Design)

10. Dan, thanks for taking the time to talk with us here at Design Droplets. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for Design Droplets readers?

Just that, over here, we’re all maybe a little secretly jealous of the tremendous opportunity designers have in the Asia-Pacific region. Of course there has been really great design work and thinking coming out of the region for quite some time, but future opportunities are plentiful. While there is a tendency for everyone to want to think globally, this does not mean we need to homogenize our thinking. I hope we can all appreciate, and thrive on, our own heritage, beliefs, and local points of view – and share those with the world.