James Dyson- Airblade hand dryer
- Introduce the designer selected and the reason for selection
Sir James Dyson is a British inventor, industrial design engineer and founder of the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation.
- Describe a project in which they practiced user-centered design
In October 2006 Dyson launched the Dyson Airblade, it is a new type of hand dryer that wipes hands dry with high velocity blade of air. It’s the fastest, most hygienic and dryer. It dries hands in just 12 seconds and removes 99.9% of bacteria from the air. The Airblade uses a thin sheet of moving air as a squeegee to remove water, rather than attempting to evaporate it with heat. This allows faster drying, while using much less energy than traditional electrical hand dryers.
- What user-centered design principles and methods did the designer utilize?
Dyson’s study of user-needs and how they were not being met by products currently on the market. Dyson has a history of taking existing products and working to remove their shortcomings, improving them to the point of reinventing them. He set out to reinvent the vacuum cleaner in the 70’s because he was frustrated that the manufacturers hadn’t improved on the design in 20 years. “I thought no one was bothering to use technology in vacuum cleaners, I saw a great opportunity to improve,” says Dyson. “I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution.” Developing the kind of mindset of the likes of James Dyson — a ‘Probe and learn’ approach — is critical to design and Design Thinking, and may prove invaluable in the development of more radical innovation in many industries and sectors.
- Whom were the designers target audience? What was their gender, generation, culture, and profession?
Dyson targeted an overall frustration with existing products and redeveloped them to be more efficient and user friendly. Dyson wants owners to instinctively know how the products work. To find them easy, helpful, pleasurable. And they also want each Dyson owner to feel a sense of satisfaction every time they switch it on, to take pleasure in its precision and construction. They want them to know that it’s up to the job.
- How did practicing user-centered design add value to the project as a whole?
Letting your users know that you are intentionally designing based off of their feedback is very effective. The product becomes more satisfying to the user. I interviewed my mother about the design and how she felt using the product versus older air dryers. She felt that Dyson’s version was the best by far because it was the most hygienic and efficient.
- What are the key takeaways from this assignment?
Understanding what the target audience wants in a product is extremely important and to achieve their expectation in solving the issue it is going to take multiple failures first.