ABSTRACT
Over the last few decades, the rapid progress of technological possibility has led both industry and academia to realise that the notion of what determines a products functionality needs to be re-examined. At this moment, much of a product’s functionality has been reduced to purely materialistic concerns and therefore offers little in terms of engagement and interaction. Where a focus on hard (technologically based) product functionality was once enough to differentiate one company’s (or industries) offering from another, the new ubiquity of affordable technology has meant that matching or surpassing the functional (quantitative) standards of a competitors products will do little to grab the attention of a more knowledgeable, mature and demanding consumer led society.
