Mass Customisation - what are we designing? Exploring the nature of design for co-design in the MC literature and calling for the use of design research methods to gain insight and information into customer co-design experiences

1. Mass Customisation:
what are we designing?
Kate Herd Twitter: @kateherdkruger
Kate Herd, Andy Bardill & Mehmet Karamanoglu

2. “Once upon a time there were producers and consumers.
Their roles were static and well defined” (Howe 2009, p71)
SOURCE: http://www.configurator-database.com/

3. As with many emerging paradigms, much of the research in the mass
customization literature has focused upon aspects of how it’s done, as
opposed to what are we trying to achieve (Brabazon 2005)
IMAGE SOURCE: Karger, M., Richter, A., Sadek, T. & Strotmann, W. (2010). Flexibility of industrial product service systems - an assessment based on
concept modelling. Arbeitsberichte des Lehrstuhls für Produktionswirtschaft.

4. Not just an MC product…but
an MC product
offering
This encapsulates not just
the resultant product, but the
blend of tangible and
intangible elements that
describe the entirety of the
co-design experience
SOURCE: FREITAG purchase

5. a co-design experience
Consists not only of the activities that relate to the
co-design of the product via the product
configurator, but a co-design experience comprises
both tangible and intangible elements,
encompassing the entire purchasing experience
from the beginning of co-design activity through
to the receipt of the customised product and
beyond
(Herd, Bardill & Karamanoglu 2009)

6. 1. Questions prior to co-design activity at the
configurator
2. Questions during or after co-design
activity at the configurator

8. Adapted from Sleeswijk Visser et al. (2005)

9. “we need not only a window into the user’s life, but also an
explanation of how he sees things in that window”
Mattelmäki (2003)
IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.johnniemoore.com

10. “a singular experience is made
up of an infinite amount of
smaller experiences, relating to
contexts, people and products”
(Forlizzi and Ford 2000, p420)
IMAGE SOURCE: http://creativeandlive.com/archives/2008/02/17/lego-art

11. IMAGE SOURCE: http://experiencematters.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/legowheel.png

12. IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.joycehostyn.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/starbucks-experience-map.png

14. 1.Literature review: MC, customer
experience and service design literature
2.Immersion: engaging as a customer co-
designer to purchase a range of products and
recording the experiences
3.Probing: using design probes with a series of
customer co-designers to gain insight and information
into the individuals and their experiences

15. PUMA
My K-Swiss
NikeiD
FREITAG
Timbuk2
YourDesign.co.uk
Spreadshirt
Threadless

16. FREITAG, PUMA, NikeiD, Timbuk2 & My K-Swiss

21. explore engage anticipate own
• co-design • confirmation • receipt
• transaction • manufacture • it’s mine
• dispatch

23. Physio-pleasure:
Relates to the body
and is concerned with
positive feedback from
the sensory organs
Socio-pleasure:
Relationships with
others, aspects of
products which confer
social, material or
cultural status
Psycho-pleasure:
A user’s cognitive
interaction with a product
and their subsequent
emotional reaction
Ideo-pleasure:
Peoples values from
aesthetics to ethics.
Defines how people
do, and would like to
see themselves

24. The probes allow us to tell stories about our co-designers
and their co-design experience

26. “I’m seeing a progress bar that shows
me how far I’ve reached in the design
stage, so I’m nine out of eleven, so that
indicates that I probably need to, erm…
there’s something else that needs
changing in terms of colour, so I’m…
kind of looking around…to see…”
Participant 03 voice recorder notes – Nike iD trainers

27. “I love the bag…I haven’t stopped, it has
like, a special place…it sits on top of the
fridge”
Participant 02 post-purchase interview – FREITAG bag

29. What stages of a co-design experience do we need to choreograph?
IMAGE SOURCE: http://dancingperfectlyfree.com/tag/contemporary-dance/page/2/

31. “Good design is at the intersection of business and human goals. It’s not just about
users, and it’s not just about business—it’s about balancing both” (Jess McMullin)
Thank you!
Kate Herd, A. Bardill, M.Karamanoglu
k.herd@mdx.ac.uk
@kateherdkruger
IMAGE SOURCE: http://whitekaos.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/first-steps-of-the-hub-gipuzkoa/