Abstract:

New Product Development is an essential part of a healthy growing economy (Annacchino, 2007). Yet few business activities are heralded for their promise and approach to optimistic outcomes than the development of new products and services. Successful new products also have the added benefit of revitalising the organisation, resulting in a growing trend within the area of New Product Development (NPD) management literature spanning the past 30 years (Trott, 2005). Through the creation of new products and services, revenues and profits are generated and returned to individuals, organisations and governments. Within the realm of NPD industrial designers play various roles. These roles vary from maker to marketer but one role that is universal throughout the NPD cycle is the skilled ability to not only see the bigger picture in terms of the design at hand but the ability for a designer to confidently present a proposal to ultimately allow the product ever seeing the light of day. Product innovation and the development of new and improved products is crucial to the survival and prosperity of the modern corporation and without NPD would not be achievable (Bucolo & Matthews, 2011). Industrial Design plays a significant role in the New Product Development process. At its core is the generation of the ideas and concepts which underpin product and service innovations. Being able to translate these ideas and concepts into commercial opportunities is also a critical step in the product development cycle.

The unit New Product Development taught within the Industrial Design course at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) introduces the relationship between product design and commercialisation to third year Industrial Design students. Where they are exposed for the first time to strategy development, aimed at meeting consumer expectations, whilst achieving corporate objectives. Delivered content such as intellectual property, market opportunities, competitor analysis and investor requirements are taught within the unit timeframe. This paper provides an overview of the curriculum design of this unit as well as its incremental development over the past three year duration. Student outcomes from this unit will also be discussed and presented.

Annacchino, M. (2007) The Pursuit of new product development, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA.

Bucolo, S. & Matthews, J. (2011) Design led innovation :exploring the synthesis of needs, technologies and business models. In: Proceedings of Participatory Interaction Conference 2011, 13‐15 January 2011, Sønderborg, Denmark.

Trott, P. (2005) Innovation management and new product development, Prentice Hall, England.

Keywords:

Industrial Design, Design Education, New Product Development.