1.) As an industrial designer our job is to design products that fit the needs of consumers. Griffith ran into the problem that he designed a lens printer that made lenses at significantly lower cost then lens printers at the time. His lens printer won prizes and was said to "change the economics of corrective lenses in rural and undeserved communities around the world." But his product never found a spot in the market only because he had solved the wrong problem. The problem was testing eyes and getting accurate prescriptions for people with little or no medical care that was accessible to them. That was not a problem that technology could fix but only politics and government. Industrial designers are constantly trying to fix problems with current products. Sometimes we do not fix the problems that consumers are looking for.
The latest and greatest technology is something that every Industrial Designer wants to incorporate into their designs. Sometimes the cost of these technologies over power the practicality of the design. Griffith himself was trying to design wind energy producers but the cost was to great to move it out the prototype stage. He himself said that "Even if I came to you tomorrow with the perfect energy idea, the reality is that to go from that idea to doing utility-scale power generation would be a minimum cost of entry of one hundred million dollars, and a lead time of five to ten years." Industrial designers may have great ideas using new technology but the cost can send them back the drawing board.
2.) Industrial designers respond to the problems that customers have with current problems. When we do not fix the problems they have we have to refine and redesign our products. We keep doing this process until the product meets the expectations of the consumer.
If a designer runs into the problem that the manufacturing of the product will cost too much, there are not too many options. They can either redesign their product to have a lower manufacturing cost or convince the client or company to spend the money because the profit that will be made from this product will outweigh the money spent to make it
3.)Another one of Griffiths problems was that he was unable to make his electricity wind generator full scale because of costs and for the reason that it would take years to get the product out on the market. He also created an electric rope but he said it was a technology waiting for the right application. He also had the idea of solar roadways but realized the the amount of energy to make it would not be returned.
Alex stated that in his design field they are constantly trying to improve products to help the problems that Americans are dealing with. I agree with his statement because architects too are trying to improve on designs or buildings that have already been built. We have to always make sure that we are meeting the issues that a client is having when design a building or the finished product will not suit the owner. For example, my tech professor was asked to redesign the back rooms of a row house so that the client had a more spacious living area. The first time she brought the drawings to be looked at and passed, the neighbor had a huge issue with the new design blocking the light to their house next door. My professor soon realized that not only was she working on trying to create a more sapcious living area, but also keep in mind the effect it will have on the houses beside it. In all of our majors we strive to make the customer happy, and to do so we have to make sure we are focusing on the correct problems that are brought to us.
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