ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a project which examined the process whereby products based on new information technologies are developed for the consumer market. The bare elements of our conception of the innovation process are captured in which product design is seen as only one stage in a cycle which is constantly repeated as products are marketed and the results are fed back into the process. The pattern of innovation in electronic IT products for the home suggests that one of the consequences of the shortening of the product life-cycle is the near continuous launching of new product configurations within the same product space. Electronic messaging embraces a number of different products and services through which individual users can communicate from the home. User reaction to electronic messaging, home automation and interactive multimedia has been tested and will continue to be tested.
