ABSTRACT
Creating desirable products which people will want to buy, use, and live with over a substantial period of time is a complex activity requiring input from a range of diverse disciplines. The days are gone when a consumer product could be entirely created by one single designer, and successful new product development (NPD) is increasingly dependent on cross-disciplinary communication and understanding. The early, definitive stages of design involve designers, ergonomists, marketing people and others in a complex combination of activities in which the viewpoints of the various participants inevitably differ. To make progress towards a synergistic integration of the design activity there needs to be an ongoing dialogue between the disciplines. This chapter is intended to contribute to that dialogue.
