Okay and the agenda will be the opening and  that's  the product manager or secretary that's me and  the presentations from the Christine and  Agnes and from Mister Ed . And finally in this meeting we have to decide marketing: project manager: and we are to take a decision on the remote control concept and  the functional design So we have forty minutes , I think it's  little bit  low , but I I hope we can finish it up so I'll handle to the the functional team , to the Christine , okay , to discuss about  the components concept . So  project manager: industrial designer: we were looking he specifically at the components  the following components ,  the case , the power supply ,  the means of communications with the television set . In instance we had talked about using some sort of speech recognition , project manager: industrial designer: you have to have microphone well no you don't actually I haven't have to have microphone in the device , but  maybe you do have it a a way marketing: industrial designer: it has to it has to hear the speaker user interface: industrial designer: and  , so it could be in the television set , could be in the device , but somewhere you have to put the microphone ,  and a w a way of making beeps or sounds so you can find it when it's gets lost . Our method for going about this is we've looked at  the histo hi historical record , what's worked , what hasn't and then we also  we wanted to evaluate some new materials marketing: industrial designer: and we contacted manufacturing for their input because , course , we m might come up and choose the material that then manufacturing didn't have the technologies or capabilities to offer us , so  this is the approach that we took during our  our research . marketing: industrial designer: So  for the case ,  we told we were making a specifica specific assumption that it would be curved in design . marketing: industrial designer: Course , you know , I wanted it to be expandable and shrinkable , but  that  doesn't seem to b be one of the choic non-option we can  we can really seriously explore , user interface: industrial designer: so then we were thinking about  rubber , but  unfortunately that's been eliminated because of the heat  factor user interface: industrial designer: and th  there might be some problems with the m  how it's  goes with the board .  and  then th plastic also has this problem of melting and it's brittle it gets brittle after a while , user interface: industrial designer: so  we still had titanium and and wood available , but  unfortunately   titanium's also been eliminated  , user interface: industrial designer: the m people in manufacturing said that you couldn't make d curved cases out of titanium , although how Apple did it with th PowerBook I'm not su quite sure but  nevertheless  they've eliminated all of our options except wood . marketing: industrial designer: And a as she said , it's an environmentally friendly  material , so we're we're currently  proposing , marketing: industrial designer:  we'll get to all my personal preferences in just a second . marketing: industrial designer: So then there's this other matter of the chips and  well we could use a simple design on the board , user interface: project manager: industrial designer:  these simple chips , but that's only works for the bu you don't get very much  intelligence with this simple one . And  then there was the regular which I regret that I've forgotten exactly why I'm eliminating that one .  the other option was this advanced chip on print , and  we liked th we we found that it it includes this infrared sender , marketing: industrial designer: which w 'member the beam was that was an important component of finding the right chip . marketing: industrial designer: And  manufacturing has told us that they've   recently developed a  a sensor and a speaker that would  be integrated into this advanced chip on print , so  we we  now jumping right to our personal preferences  I I'd really think we should , you know , use some of  some really exotic woods , like  , user interface: industrial designer: you know  , well you guys come from tropical countries so you can kinda think of some trees and some nice woods . I think that people will might really want to design their own cases , you see , they could do sort of a this  three-dimensional design on the internet , and then they could submit their orders , kinda like you submit a custom car order , you know , and you can choose the colour and the size of the wheels and the colours of the leather and things like that , and then I  think we should go with the solar cells as well as the  microphone and speaker on the advanced chip . So this is the findings of our research marketing: industrial designer: and my recommendations  for the new remote control w  would be to have  have it be made out of wood . Do you have any problems with that ? project manager: Can you go back  one slide ? industrial designer: I'm not sure , how do I Oh , I know , let's see . project manager: Yes ,  question , what's mean exactly , advanced chip on print ? What's the meaning of that ? industrial designer: I think it's   a multiple  chip design  and it's  maybe printed on to the circuit board . project manager: Yeah , is it means it's on the yeah is it on a micro-proc micro-processor based or  industrial designer: I don't know , but I'll find out more at our next meeting . project manager: Okay , tha that would be great , so if you find out from the technology background , okay , so that would be good . user interface: Why was the plastic eliminated as a possible material ? industrial designer: Because  it gets brittle , cracks user interface: user interface: industrial designer: I don't know , speak for yourself , I'm planning to be around for a while . user interface: Although I think marketing: user interface: I think with wood though you'd run into the same types of problems , wouldn't you ,  it chips , it if you drop it , industrial designer: marketing: user interface:  it's I'm not su industrial designer: project manager: So so you're not convinced about the the wood , yes . user interface: industrial designer: you're what ? marketing: Actually , I'm ready to sell it . user interface: I think if you re if you use really good quality wood , then it might work , marketing: I'm ready to sell it . industrial designer: You think ? And you could you could sell oils with it , to take care of it . user interface: but you can't just use marketing: No y no no no , the o the only w the only wood you can use are the ones that are hard , extremely hard wood , user interface: Yeah , exactly , yeah . industrial designer: Well I'm glad you user interface: marketing: That's actually very innovative idea . marketing: industrial designer: marketing: Well , it's actually a very innovative n different idea that  you know you can choose your colour of wood , your type of wood . marketing:  it's each person is gonna have their own personalised , individualised speech recognition remote control in wood , that's not on the market . user interface: project manager: Yeah , so it it's looks good the the design the functional design  , what about yo you ? marketing: user interface: in terms of comments on this or in terms of my own project manager: Yes , in t yes , in term in terms of comments first marketing: In turns of wow . industrial designer: user interface: industrial designer: She works in the cubicle next to me so she's  she was already a little bit prepared for this . user interface: marketing: Wood ? user interface: I think we can get the quality materials then it shouldn't influence the design principles too much , which you'll see with my presentation . marketing: user interface: One thing we'd have to check though is what the users whether how quickly the novelty wears off of having  industrial designer: Yeah , you wouldn't wanna have to have splinters in your hand while you're using your user interface: Yeah , for example . So , have to see how kid-friendly it is and and all that , marketing: industrial designer: It's really good if your dog gets ahold of it , they can use it for teething . user interface: but marketing: user interface: marketing: They do that anyway with the rubber and plastic , industrial designer: Yeah , they do it with other materials as well , yeah . So , it's a very short presentation , 'cause I'm actually gonna draw you the layout on the board so if you want to just go straight to the second slide , which basically shows , sort of marketing: user interface: I took the ideas that we were talking about last time  and tried to put that into the remote control so the things that y you can actually see on it are the on off switch , volume and channel control , the menu access button , ergonomic shape , which I completely agree with Christine's idea to have it sort of molded , so it's slightly more ergonomic and comfortable to hold than the r standard very straight remote controls . And actually the other thing with the wood if we take your customising idea , is that people can actually do sort of quasi-measurements on their hand size , so if someone has larger hands , you have a wider remote control .  , one thing I thought might be kind of interesting is to put a flip screen on it , just like you have on flip phones , marketing: user interface: so that you don't have this case where someone sits on the remote control or accidentally puts their hand on it , especially if you have little kids around , they're not pressing the buttons while you're trying to watch a T_V_ show and accidentally change the channel or turn it off . user interface: And also  you had issues with the batteries running out , marketing: user interface: so I thought maybe we could put a little battery life-light on it that kind of goes dimmer and dimmer and dimmer as your battery is starts to die . And in terms of invisible features , audio and  tactile feedback on button presses and , like you said , speech recognition . user interface: So , in terms of what this thing would actually look like marketing: user interface: Despite working in interface design , I'm not the greatest artist in the world , so you'll have to forgive me . You'd have something like this with an on-off switch fairly big , sort of in the corner and by itself , so you don't accidentally turn your T_V_ off while you're trying to manoeuvre other buttons . And then you have sort of one of those toggle displays for , oops , channels and volume , sort of for surfing channels and then volume , so the volume would be the up and down , 'cause volume goes up and down and then channels left to right . And then on one side you would have an access to the menu on your T_V_ project manager: user interface: and on the other side a way to turn off the voice control . So that if the user doesn't want to use their voice , they can just turn it off and you don't have the remote control accidentally changing things on you . user interface: so again you can have a little L_C_D_ light somewhere , the flip thing and Have I forgotten anything ? I don't think so . project manager: user interface: which is one of the things I really wanted to keep , is keep it simple , not have too many buttons , not have too many functionalities thrown into it . Think the design can pretty much carry over to everything , although with the wood the flip screen might have to do something slightly different . But you also have to d start watching out for the weight , 'cause depending on how much the the flip screen will add to the weight of the remote control , you don't want it to start getting too heavy . user interface: But that's the general layout with the general functionalities , if we come up with something else . As you can see , there's still lots of space on the actual remote control and if you do it customisably , you can make this thing fairly small or fairly o large , depending on personal preferences . user interface: So , that's pretty much all I had to say , everything else in terms of design issues .  the centering of the key pad and the channel is just depending on where your thumb is and you tend to use the the volume control and  the browsing more than the actual number pad , so that would be sort of in direct line of where your thumb goes when you are holding the remote control , industrial designer: user interface: So once we decide exactly what we want , then we can figure out the exact positioning , but more or less I think it should go along those lines . We've been giving simple questionnaires in different areas because th obviously we have to see what the com consumers are looking for today , 'cause  trends change very very quickly . In six months maybe this idea is already gone out the window , so it's gonna be a question how fast we can act . This is what we know from the last  from the questionnaires from the the all the p surveys we've done , fancy and feel-good , that's what we've been looking for , something that feels good in the hand , that's easy to use . Looking for next generation of innovation , because all the remotes out there now , they're all very similar , they all do the same thing , project manager: industrial designer: marketing: we have to have something completely different . Okay ? Easy to use , has always has become has become another major interest that  , with the whiteboard we can see that it's a remote that's easy to use . And I think this is another thing that's interesting is the consumers actually willing to pay the price for exciting tel technology . So even if we have a product that may be more expensive , if it comes out right , if they look it looks and feels good and has technology . The second one , there is about  forty-five thousand different buttons on it , which makes it fairly hard to read ,  very hard to use . industrial designer: user interface: marketing: The first one , I see that they put in a display . Now there's something else  with the little flip-up , now we're adding all kinds of things in , user interface: marketing: but with the little flip-up , if you have a little display on the flip-up that when you close it everything is locked . marketing: Maybe the display also makes it easier to use , because sometimes when you're looking for buttons , maybe if you see a display user interface: industrial designer: Context-sensitive instructions , depending on what the tel what mode the T_V_ or the D_V_D_ or something else is in . marketing: Okay Because I've seen mostly the standard ones , user interface: Especially you might need something like that for training the speech recognition and marketing: yeah . marketing: So maybe if we can incorporate the easiness of use , trendy , fancy , feels good ,  with a display , wood , designer wood , designer colours user interface: industrial designer: user interface: project manager: industrial designer: You know , maybe what you could do is when somebody orders the device id you could send them like  a   b some sort of a foam rubber  ball , marketing: we might've user interface: Oh yeah . user interface: Yeah , so it's really molded to to your specific industrial designer: To t an and then you would know like  what the geometry of their hands would be and  marketing: project manager: marketing: How hard they squeeze ? user interface: industrial designer: Yes you'd know what kind of wood to get . user interface: But th for that you'd also have to do sort of an average across families and things like that if unless everyone has their own personal remote . industrial designer: That's right , that's right , you wouldn't wanna go too far down that . user interface: industrial designer: marketing: No , but incorporating the three  obviously it'd be something totally new on the market , totally different user interface: Yeah . industrial designer: marketing: and from user interface: Well , already the customisability is a really good sort of new gimmick . marketing: Right , you take it apart , and put on another face , take it off and put on another face user interface: Yeah . industrial designer: We'd also have to wor  consider that  who we were gonna get to make these custom cases in terms of manufacturing processes , we might wanna  learn about  labour laws . project manager: industrial designer: You know in different countries and stuff wher so we can do it cheap , but you don't wanna exploit  labour in  third world countries . industrial designer: So actually you could turn it y turn around and say that you're  par the reason the cost is high for the device is because  you're paying a a working wage to the person who made the device . project manager: Yeah , but we can get a production in , countries like , India industrial designer: Cost of living is low . project manager: yes , yes , countries like India or China or Malaysia , so you can go a better features and better price and you can sell more . So industrial designer: Good , well th that'd be something that manufacturing would have to  explore more project manager: Yeah , yeah , so Yes . project manager: So Yeah , so industrial designer: Yeah marketing: We're here to design , come up with a nice product . project manager: Yes  , but  that that we can that we can talk about the production later , okay , depends on the the quantity , okay . project manager: So we don't need to have our own  fabric factory or something , industrial designer: project manager: so we can have a tie-up with who the do the fabric , okay , for the different  electronics items , then we can have a business tie-up and to get to cut the cost , okay , to sell more . So , but  le let's decide first about the components concept and  interface concept , okay , if is acceptable for both of you , what  Ed was talking . And your design whether you want with the display or without display or just a simple , so user interface: I think it depends ,  I think it's a good idea , but we need to really think about how useful it's gonna be because theoretically with the T_V_ you already have a big display right in front of you . user interface: So , if we're trying to keep costs down , then maybe sacrificing the display is a way to go . user interface:  it depends on how much putting a display costs and what it would be used for industrial designer:  . user interface: 'cause if it's only used for one little thing , then putting in a big display case or a big display that's probably expensive just to do the training on the chip for the speech recognition or whatever , may not be the most cost-efficient way to go , project manager: user interface: but that's just sort of speculation ,  . industrial designer: What do you think Ed ? Do you he liked the display in one of the concepts that you showed , do you know how much it costs , to to add a little display like this  ? marketing: No . No industrial designer: Do you wanna take an action item to go find out ? marketing: no p spec It's 'cause we have to find out cost on it . industrial designer: So the the advanced chip on print is what  what we've we've deci we've determined marketing: industrial designer: and the  engineering industrial design is the recommendation , and  I think we've kinda come to some agreement regarding  this concept of a wooden case . user interface: What about the buttons , would Would the buttons be wood too , or industrial designer:  I don't think so , no , project manager: I don't think so . industrial designer: so you have that tactile experience of project manager: Don't looks nice  . Yeah , so  what we'll do is , we will stick with the the simple design for time being until  th Ed find outs about the how much it's cost to the extra , in case we go for the display . project manager: maybe what you can do is  , both of you , you can come up with the the prototype , okay , the model . project manager: user interface: industrial designer: So  are we done with this meeting ? project manager: Yeah , I hope , if is it okay if  they will come up with the prototype design , okay . Then they can show you how it looks like , and then we can  submit to the I will submit to the management . Okay ? Then meantime you can come up with the price , how much it's cost as extra for  the display . user interface: project manager: Of course you'll make money too , industrial designer: project manager: so it it's not only pay-out , you make money too , your commission . user interface: marketing: user interface: marketing: project manager: Okay , so , any questions ? user interface: No . project manager: So , by next meeting , so , please come up with the the prototype , okay , then  , then we can proceed from there . project manager: So thanks for all your  efforts and coming for the meeting again , and see you soon then


So we have forty minutes to discuss and  finalise and close the product and project and to move further , okay , so Okay , let's talk about  maybe first  for the prototype . project manager: So I handle to user interface: I've done a presentation , but it pretty much covers work that we've both done , so if I'm missing anything , Christine can just correct me . user interface: It's not the biggest PowerPoint presentation in the world , but industrial designer: marketing: project manager: So in two or three or industrial designer: user interface: Three . industrial designer: marketing: user interface:  okay , can I have the mouse ? project manager: Yes . Alright , so from when we were discussing specifying the case in the last meeting , we decided that we wanted an ergonomic shape , the material that we chose was wood , and  the colour would be customisable , 'cause you can stain the wood whatever colour .  , so in terms of function , you have to be able to turn the T_V_ on and off , volume and channel control , menu control , voice recognition control , and we've incorporated the L_C_D_ screen on the flip panel as part of the design , if we figure out it's too expensive , well then you just take it off . marketing: user interface: So if you lift up the panel , you can see the lovely yellow L_C_D_ display . The yellow button you have is the on off button , so it's really big , hard to miss . And then you have the numeric pad in the dark blue at the bottom , and on the right-hand side you have the access to the menu on the T_V_ , and on the left-hand side you have the the the ability to turn off the voice recognition . industrial designer: Yeah the d user interface: Additional feature on the back is that you can have your own customised backing and I suppose you could do the same thing on the flip case on the front . That depends on the  s design of the circuit board inside and  what room is left  user interface: Yeah . project manager: I think the microphone is on on the top ,  on the middle , the under the flip . project manager: So that will be the safe , so p any the chip it's not on the chip because you need to have microphone to industrial designer: No ,  it depends on the design of the circuit board . user interface: But it shouldn't be under the flip either , because you can have the remote control closed , but you still might want to activate it by voice . project manager:  it's it's Yeah , but   my opinion I think it's better under the flip because whenever you want to  the talk , okay , so then you can speak then you can close it . But if you put it on the on the flip , okay , then  technical I don't think it's  feasible , 'cause most of the time you speak then it will be recognised . user interface: But if you've already got the remote control in your hand you need to open the flip to use the voice , why use the voice , why not just use your hand ?  the whole point of the voice is that if the remote control is sitting there and I'm too lazy to reach over and pick it up , I can just use my voice . industrial designer: Maybe I've got my hand in the popcorn bowl and I'm holding my cup of Coca-Cola in the other hand . user interface:  it doesn't have to be on the flip , it can be on the side somewhere . user interface: marketing: No , because y you can easily put a microphone on the side that would have no problem would haven't been not be damaged or anything , and it'd be accessible all the time to voice . S I'm fine , I'm satisfi user interface: And maybe the shape of the buttons , project manager: I'm satisfied . user interface: the little egg shapes aren't the most economical , but industrial designer: We're glad you're satisfied . project manager: Of course it's it's it's looks more heo heavy , but I think when it's completely maybe it's a less weight . But And part of the thing is m a lot of people say that they don't like something that's too light , because they don't feel like they have enough control over it . user interface: So  maybe this is excessively heavy , but I think it needs to have some weight , project manager: Yep . marketing: project manager: So any comments or  marketing: Well , the prototype is is very well within the design and ideas that we've we've talked about on the previous meetings . marketing: Now it goes into this next phase as the financial  marketing  project manager: Yes , that  So I'll come back to the So evaluation criteria , I think  that will be good , so then let's come to the finance  , I have some  calculations which I made  as for  the budget .  it's optional , somewhat optional and Ed wants the chip on print , that's what  we were talking about that . industrial designer: project manager: So then we have sample sensor and sample speaker , then  we have the wood material , then special colour and push button . So it's  actually , our budget was  twelve point five Euro , but  it's coming to nine point nine five Euro , so we are under  below the budget , okay , so still we are saving some money . marketing: Well we haven't come to mine yet , so industrial designer: Oh , okay user interface: industrial designer: . It's gonna cost a long way to c you know , cost a lot of money to market it , is it ? marketing: we're gonna have a bit of difference of opinion , yes . project manager: So maybe it's for some money we can utilise for our  marketing , for the sales , okay , and  marketing: Well , it just depends on if we're gonna add a o on this pr provisionary cost analysis , we do not have a L_C_ display . L_C_ display is gonna be very expensive , user interface: No we do , but it's not filled in . marketing: We don't have the price up there , user interface: Oh , yeah , yeah , project manager: Yeah . marketing: okay , so if we add approximately two to three Euro per remote , now we're up around about twelve , twelve and a half as to what  the company had initially  requested .  industrial designer: So that means we can put the  the L_C_D_ in , yeah . But as far as production  I'm putting up a question because we're talking about profit also , and in mine you'll see  the problem with  our survey , the p the possibility that how many units can be sold , what percentage of the market , etcetera etcetera because that has to be taken in into consideration . project manager: marketing:  this is just production cost , it is not  advertising cost , it's not transportation cost  project manager: Yes , so still  we have twelve point five Euro . marketing: And that will inflate quite a bit the cost of the  the cost of the unit for the company . marketing: So to come up with what the company wants is a fifty million Pound profit , we're gonna have to go a long ways . This we are talking about one unit , okay , so when it go into the quantity , okay , and the cost will come down . industrial designer: Although customisation , because this is being done , you know , the on on-order basis , it might be  the the quantity won't m won't  marketing: Slightly . industrial designer: the circuit board will b you're right , would be in producing quantity , but the cost of the case would  be fixed at the  you got some pretty cheap labour that can do this case for one Euro . industrial designer: That's really that's the cost of the material and lab wow , that's really outstanding . But anyhow , still we are under control , okay , so what  I will do is I will try to negotiate with the vendors , okay , to get  the production cost less , okay , so then we can save some money , okay , to put into th our marketing or  you know the promotions , whatever , okay , so that  I will look after . project manager: You're in four ? marketing: Yep The four gives me it's gotta be  TrendWatch . marketing: It shouldn't be user interface: That's no , I think it's the same one . marketing: Although since  we need to have some type of idea on a market  we had independent study that says it this this market has an availability to absorb eight mi eight million units per year . Okay ? Our internal company evaluation puts it between eight to nine million which is approximately the same as the independent study . Which means that  if we have a target of two million would the company has to take twenty five percent of the market in the first year , project manager: marketing: So , if we put an inflated price of fifty Euro at a production cost that cannot exceed twenty-five Euro , okay , we're already in that that price , okay , project manager: Yes . marketing: with transport , promotion , labour , because we hav gi included the promotion in the cost , transport for the material to the stores or whatever how however we're gonna break this down between our our retailers . At two million units , we have to have a profit of twenty-five Euro per unit to get to the fifty million unit Eu Euro profit . marketing: Okay ? So , obviously we w w I just did a run down the evaluation of the form , the fan  the fancy stylishness of the of the unit , the ease of use , speech recognition , cost , we've gone through these . Now , the company must evaluate the feasibility of being able to take enough of the market to justify in production . Or we project this over two years , but being that the market changes very very quickly , maybe there's no more interest in buying this thing in eighteen months from now . marketing: Can it sell it for fifty Euros ? industrial designer: Could could I go to findings ? project manager: Yep . industrial designer:    I would  like to explore the possibility of using  alternative  delivery and sales channel which would be  to use the internet for promotion and ordering project manager: Yes . industrial designer: That way you have no storage , you have no  you do have transportation , still have the labour cost , user interface: user interface: That actually makes more sense if we're gonna make it so highly customisable , 'cause on the web people can look at the different options they have , see maybe what other people have done , what the range of possibility as , industrial designer:  . user interface: whereas if you're in a store , you can't unless you're a highly imaginative person , you may not really know what it is you want , industrial designer:  . user interface: whereas on the web , if you have a bunch of pictures , it can sort of trigger ideas and industrial designer: And you can even have an a movie that you can rotate the object and look at the di the only thing that you're missing really is the weight . It's not quite like trying on a shoe , but people are getting used to buying things online that they can't touch before buying . You can customise a watch , you can see how it is at the f at the end of the production , industrial designer: -huh . marketing: you can change it  There's a lot of online that's that is doing this now . marketing: And when you're rotating , you'll look behind and look this way  it's possible to do with this , maybe there's a possibility of selling more than two million units in one year , which could you know , feasibili feasibility  lower the price of the unit . project manager: I don't think that's  not possible , it's  okay then , l  let's wait for the production , okay , then  you can evaluate the product , so how it looks like technically and  how it look like  the real . user interface: What turnaround time do we have ? project manager: T user interface: 'Cause  production evaluation can be very very quick or very very long . industrial designer: In  We probably should do some market tests  once we have the prototypes and do some orders and things like that and test-market it . marketing:  that'd have to be thrown out on the market for people to get an idea , project manager: So you can take a minimum two weeks to a maximum four weeks . Think minimum two weeks if we're gonna develop prototypes and then try to take them to different places and see how people use project manager: Yeah . project manager: Yeah , because we we are not going to do it in  our factory , okay , so we can give it a product evalua user interface: No no . industrial designer: project manager: So we'll do it in the other place , and I don't think it's take more than four weeks time . Or  Okay , so then the real production we will start once we product evaluation , okay , then  it's approve from  the technical team and  your team , okay ,  from the management , then we can launch in the market . Hm ? industrial designer: Any outstanding ? project manager: S Any any other  questions or  comments to be discuss ? industrial designer: No , I'm user interface: What ab industrial designer: go ahead . project manager: Okay , so then  industrial designer: Did you have something ? user interface: Well I was just wondering about if we're gonna do a product evaluation then what about time for redesign if the users come back and tell us no this is bad , this is bad , we want this done differently . industrial designer: project manager: So no more changes will be made , okay , in this the basic design . Okay ? So we will introduce m this model and  let's introduce in the market and let's take the feedback from the customers , then we can  go for the industrial designer: Second generation . industrial designer: user interface: The problem is there might not be a second generation if the first generation flops for some silly reason that we haven't thought of . Well , every customer , okay , they have their own ideas , they have their own test , okay , so there's no end , there's no limit . user interface: No , but there's a difference between releasing a product that has been minimally tested and fine-tuned to suit a general range of requirements versus releasing a product that we think will work but we don't really have anything to back it up . project manager: Yeah , so that's the reason you are here for  the design , okay , I hope you made a good design . We have our own motivations in mind , we have our own ideas in mind , but that doesn't mean that that's what's gonna sell . project manager: Yeah , but  see , we ought to take a few considerations , okay , one is the price consideration , one is future consideration , okay , like  you can eat  you can all eat more chi I can eat more chilli , okay , so i it's a depends on the individual taste , you know , industrial designer: project manager: so we have we have to balance somewhere . I'm just trying to point out that I think that your evaluation and redesign turnaround time is too short well you have no redesign not you personally , but in the project we have no redesign time and project manager: Yes . industrial designer: Ed , d do you know what season of the year or time of the year is the most important for T_V_ remote control sales ? marketing:  . marketing: they need those things that they have their hands g occupied and they need to be able to talk to the con remote control . industrial designer: maybe what user interface: industrial designer: So I think what we need to do is perhaps to synchronise the final the the launch of a user-tested device with some special event . industrial designer: so that gives us a little more time perhaps then we anticipated , because I don't know when the World Cup is , but I'm sure there's gonna be one . industrial designer: but , so , I'm just ig  pointing out a  a strategy to  do some additional user testing project manager: Research . industrial designer: or  perhaps to  also user interface: That's actually good place to advertise it too . industrial designer: There might be some motion pictures that are coming out  that are coming out on D_V_D_ that  they need to have a m special remote control to work with it , so we could maybe work out a campaign with  with Sony Pictures for example . user interface: It's just something to to keep in mind , 'cause it's really really important . user interface: A lot of products have gone out there without being properly user-tested and completely flopped , when in fact it gets re-released a few years down the line with proper testing and it takes off like crazy . user interface: Really ? industrial designer: Yes , it is one of the first consumer products that was launched about thirty years that was a disposable consumer product , user interface: That I didn't know . industrial designer: and  people the market hadn't really gotten on to the concept that you could use something and then throw it away , 'cause it wasn't  user interface: industrial designer: but then when they re-launched them thirty years later , they were virtually the same design , project manager: . industrial designer: but people had gotten the throw-away , you know , paper cups and napki y all kinds of things that they hadn't  so , you're right , timing is very important , user interface: Yeah . industrial designer: You look very relaxed , considering h you know , the  the weight on your shoulders , yeah . user interface: project manager: Okay , so then  let's come to the closing and  are the costs within the budget marketing: Celebration . Okay for  but our time being , so thanks for all your efforts and great work and  great design and  let's leave it to the Ed for later for once production is over and the meantime let's celebrate . user interface: Thanks industrial designer: user interface: project manager: And see you in the evening for drinks


project manager: and everybody's name and what your function is ? marketing: Yeah , that's a good plan .   my role is industrial designer and my responsibilities are    deal with the technical-functional designs and specifications of user interface and dealing with user interface design . project manager: Yes y opening , acquaintance , tool training well , the tools are , I think , we already I guess the tool is really our the computer , as far as I can see . project manager:  we get ins each of us will get instructions and we'll take it from there . That is it's gonna be individual work and then at the meeting we'll discuss what  we have come up with . Does anybody want to go and see how the white board works ? So that in case we have to , in the next meeting , present something on the white board . marketing: See if I r See if I remember how to draw a kitty cat or a rabbit or something . user interface: industrial designer: marketing: project manager: And remember you have to press so it works . project manager: And you're Francine , right ? Would you like s like just to see  how it feels , so that you have a little idea ? user interface: Yes , I'm Francina . project manager: In marketing: Am I supposed to wipe off that or project manager: No , no . project manager: user interface: industrial designer: project manager: Here's the project finance  which , of course , we all have to think about when we design this thing . project manager: So these are all things , of course , to remember with the budget and when you design to materials , cost , etcetera . Now ,  the discussion I guess is  does anyone of you have experience with remote control ? marketing: Oops . project manager: I exp I s 'cause we we use 'em we use 'em , right , everyday . project manager: And  now having used a remote control for years does anybody already have like an idea like things you didn't like with it , things you would like to change , things you would like to improve with this thing ye any first ideas ? Would you like it to be smaller , bigger , industrial designer:  . project manager: have more have more buttons on it or maybe clearly better marked buttons , you know , things like that ? user interface: Yeah , I industrial designer: Yeah . Like  the remote control which we use for T_V_ , it shou  it should be used f  for some other purpose also , like controlling the  temperature inside the house or for air-conditioners , or for heating system . project manager: So it should be a multi-functional  gadget that would  control all your household   machines basically . marketing: We certainly can try to I agree with her that to market something successfully it should do some more things . project manager: It should be something new it should be s it it should do something different than than just what we have . All the almost all the remotes project manager: Like trendy no like f for earlier we saw maybe it should be something trendy you know . project manager:  so yeah shapes right , you know , like kidney shape feels better in your hand or something , you know . marketing: I think another thing that would help is  if it beeps when you clap , project manager: Yes . project manager: That is true , user interface: project manager: because they put a newspaper or they put it behind a plant or , we you know , whatever . project manager: And and they suddenly the phone rings and they want to turn the T_V_ off and they say , where the hell is my my remote control yeah ? marketing: industrial designer: project manager: Well or yeah or if it's really , if it's really in a dark spot that it gives out a a sound or a signal . marketing: So some industrial designer: Yeah , some beep or something like that , project manager: Yeah . user interface: Or a b marketing:  so , so it's really the beep or , or a light should blink . industrial designer: so that we can go project manager: So if lost If lost  signal with b throw signal , you know . industrial designer: Yeah , maybe it should have a light so that we can , we can just recognise where it is . project manager: I'm just saying throw signal meaning just whether it's a beep or whether a light or industrial designer: Beep or  it's a light , maybe it's a light . marketing: And do you think a good c c  clue for that is that it would respond to a clap or it would respond to your voice or it would respond what what should you have to do to make it beep or blink ? project manager: Okay , my my idea is maybe that the minute it's really hidden , in in other words if it's like in a dark spot ,  meaning you know like a newspaper is on top , a sweater is on top or it it's behind a plant , at that moment it's it's like , it's like  , what you call it a light s sensors , you know ? marketing: project manager: In in that moment it has a sensor , i it it gets a certain darkness , it ge has a sensor and it gives out a signal whether that be a light signal or a beep , marketing: Okay so user interface: Yes . project manager: right you have to have some kind of sensor and I I think  voice or clapping it's not specific enough .  I know there are the lamps and stuff , you know , you can clap on and off , marketing: project manager: but I think they only work to certain degree and marketing: But it could be someplace really obvious and you still wouldn't be able to find it . project manager: What with industrial designer: Yeah , of course , that didn't user interface: Then , in that case marketing: Well , because you're s because you're silly . marketing:  it could be on well , i if it were like on top of your bookcase and you usually kept it on the coffee table industrial designer: marketing: project manager: Okay we have  marketing: you know , well maybe we have to move along , okay . project manager: yeah , we have to move along , but I think we have some good good points to start with here . I think you all did you get  notices on your computer for this ? Okay so well , you got the notice  industrial designer: Me yeah . The working design , I guess that's the function I_D_  who is this ? The industrial designer That's you . project manager: industrial designer:  working design , yeah , it's it's  mainly technical-functional design . project manager: Then And then the technical funct you are the technical function , industrial designer: Yeah , functional design , project manager: so so you are the working design . project manager: And the marketing manager is coming up with some user requirement specification , like friendliness , and what we just discussed in general . user interface: project manager: And , you know , specifi you you will get specific  instructions for that . project manager: I think basically basically you will get instructions to work with and if you have any questions  ,  I guess , you can  user interface: Okay


project manager: Okay , is everybody ready ? industrial designer: Yeah ? marketing: Yeah I'd to just put on my microphone here and I'll be right with you . marketing: Okay ? project manager:  I take it you all have received instructions as to what you were supposed to do industrial designer:  ? user interface: Yes . project manager: marketing: Well , could you  put my slides up 'cause I think it might be helpful if  we looked at the slides at the same time . marketing: so the functional requirements are is is part of my goal but why don't we pass right to the second slide . Right well  since I'm in charge of trying to figure out what we should put on this thing since I have to try to sell it . marketing:  I thought that the method I should follow would be gather suggestions from everybody , and th the reason I just put that there like that is that  in the init in the initial stage I think I should just be open to lots of suggestions . You know you can say anything you want no matter how silly it sounds you know it should run your car , it should heat up your motor if should  turn on your C_D_ whatever you want it to do industrial designer: 'Kay . marketing:  and then as we go on what we'll have to do is accept and eliminate these suggestions according to  design and budget feasibility . So I'll be coming to you  frequently as the Industrial Expert to tell me how hard it's gonna be to add a feature or how expensive it's gonna be or if your time , if it takes five years to develop this it's just something we can't do . marketing: So in the beginning just have a big puddle of things that we anybody can th throw anything in industrial designer: Yeah . marketing: and then just weed things out that can't be done for one reason or another , and then the things that seem the most attractive that to  to a customer we'll try to then prioritise those . marketing: So that was  what I meant there , and as I said on the slide there consulting the Industrial Engineer about that and the other thing is timing is really gonna be as important as money , because if we're gonna sell this thing , I think the best time to sell it is as a Christmas present . Twenty five Euros makes a nice little present , and we want it to be an impulse purchase , industrial designer:  . marketing: we want somebody to see it and think it's , gee I just gotta have that . So it's gotta be really attractive and it but it's gotta go to market by September , 'cause anything that you don't already have out there in September showing it around , isn't gonna sell for Christmas . marketing:  and then I'll be coming to you as the User Interface person to try to tell me from your point of view what are the most friendly features that we could put on it and try to prior help me with that prioritising of  of the features and of the the look and the colour user interface: Okay . marketing: and I'll be coming back to you to help weed out those suggestions from that point of view . marketing: So I'll be coming to you for how much is it gonna cost us and how long is it gonna take you , industrial designer:  marketing: and I'll be coming to you to tell me what's gonna make somebody take out their wallet you know , user interface: What features . marketing: what what's what's gonna really be what they call a sizzle , user interface: S sellable . industrial designer: marketing: A lot of times the thing that works the best from an engineering point of view isn't the thing that somebody's really just gonna take out their wallet and buy for Christmas for for their child or for their husband or whatever . marketing: Okay can we go to the next slide please ? Alright I I already did a little bit of research after our first meeting where we threw out some ideas and it looks to me that within the budget that we're looking at the  the whole house idea really isn't gonna be possible . So I'd like your suggestions to come back to the other slide where I was saying we we could suggest anything . project manager: marketing: I'd like the suggestions to be really specific , so that we'll have a list of things we can cross off , not something like you know whole house control what'll be And then I found on the internet from from my research that some extended electronic entertainment control should be possible . At the budget that we're looking at and at the price point we're looking at , we should be able to make it work the T_V_ , the V_C_R_ , the stereo set  maybe something else cute like a coffee pot or one other appliance or maybe a lamp . project manager:  okay , can can I at this point interject  something ? marketing: I have to wind up ? Yeah , sure .  the one thing for example something to eliminate maybe that's the teletext , marketing: Okay . project manager: and according to to higher management the it should only control the T_V_ , marketing: project manager: mostly because they feel that it's too comp complex a task to  to to include other things , industrial designer: Complicated , yeah , of course . project manager:  and the marketing: Okay , so that's something project manager: and the third thing that they wanna make sure  that their that the corporate image is being maintained , and that the corporate colour and design are being used on the product , so that it's easy that that that they can be easily identified as a product of of of the company , and that there's no mistake that it could be somebody else who is bringing this out . project manager: So I just wanted to interject this here so we're not getting too much off track here with  with the things we wanna look at . These were instructions from higher up so we have to eliminate  these things , so it's only gonna be T_V_ , marketing: Okay so project manager: but the one thing maybe that could be  eliminated is the teletext  idea .  alright now other things that I found out on in my research is that the complaints that people have about the remote controls that are out there now . 'Cause a lot of them take too much time to learn how to use , and that was thirty four percent but even more important the thing that we did address in our last meeting that frequently it's lost somewhere in the room .  so those are two things that we definitely do wanna address ,  we wanna s make it as simple as possible , we wanna make it  obvious and intuitive to use , and then the things about finding it we talked about the a light emitting thing as well as  maybe a beep , and I think that those are things after my research that we definitely wanna try to incorporate . 'Kay can we go to the next slide please ? Okay , so , my personal preferences in this  project are really have to concentrate on the sizzle .  because once there's no be-back , well in sales they always say you know , be-backs don't come back . industrial designer: marketing: If somebody says , oh I'll come back and get it next week you're dead . You've gotta make it attractive enough so they buy it now now now w now is a big word in in my book for selling this thing . And , in order to make it really sellable we've gotta shorten the learning curve , make sure it's really intuitive and easy to use . We have to have as few buttons as possible , because more buttons is more confusion , so that's why I'm saying , simplicity is good . Finding it's important , obviously you can't use it if you can't find it . So we've gotta concentrate on the features that help you find it , and I've already said this several times but I put it down in writing here , it should be an attractive impulse purchase at twenty five Euros . So it has to have enough value that when somebody looks at it they say ,  twenty five Euros I'm not gonna take that .  and then maybe a motto , like we put fashion in electronics might be something we can use in our marketing campaign . project manager: And you are number three ? industrial designer: Number two , project manager: Number two . industrial designer: The metal is like  in a remote controller you have a chip integrated circuit which is like a brain of the remote controller . It takes the power from a battery say a battery it it can be a elec an electric supply like you have to  like  switch connec connect connect your remote controller to  power supply from the you know electricity or something like that . It should be a battery because   remote controller should be like you you you should take it t to wherever you want and then   th marketing: industrial designer: this integrated circuitry takes energy from the power source and whatever like if you press a button it's like a input for the remote controller and it takes the input and it it transforms into a infro infrared bits and it sends it into the device , like a T_V_ or a air conditioner , something like that so . If you want to design it for multiple devices then you should make all the devices compatible with the frequency like  th the remote controller it sends some bits some  waves like with a particular frequency the device should know what the frequency is . It should re re recognise the  waves which are coming from the remote controller and it should take the action like if you press a button channel or something like that then  the remote  remote controller will send a send a se send a signal , marketing: Signal . industrial designer: and the T_V_ it should translate that into like change the channel or something like that , change the volume control user interface: Receive . project manager: Yo and it's marketing: Yeah well that's already been eliminated by management , so we're off the hook . So  user interface controls the chip and accordingly the messages like there should be a user user in interface like you know switch pad or something like that buttons should be there . So  you can control whatever you want , you want to change the channel you want to control the volume you you want to  mute  mute the  T_V_ or you want to have a child lock or you want to do some operations there's a there should be some device to tell what to do to the  in  integrated circuit so that the integrated circuit can s send the signals and T_V_ can perform the actions . industrial designer: So I I just would like to  add some extra features to the remote controller  I think these are the very simple features and  they don't take much   much of the   investment also , marketing: industrial designer: it's like el the text or buttons which  which are there on the  remote controller they those we can make   like fluorescent  they'll be like light emitting if it is dark so that you can find your remote controller if it is dark . industrial designer: And ther there should be a beep if many buttons are pressed if suppose a child is playing with the remote controller and a and she she or he is pressing the buttons all at the time then there should be a beep saying that it's this this is not a a you know a a action , there can be no action taking to that so . And there should be a child lock , like   you should be able to lock your remote controller so that   whatever buttons are pressed by a child they can't be like y you i you if you have ki kids and all then they'll be pl playing with the remote controllers so can lock the remote controller . If make it useable for more than one device it's a it's hard but I think it's possible project manager: Yeah well yeah well that has been e that has been eliminated , so that's that's unfortunately a moot point now . And  different shapes that we can do like  we can have you know a all animals shapes or you know comfortable  whi which can fit into your hands project manager: industrial designer: and  so that  marketing: Now that's good from a marketing point of view , the fun the fun shape . industrial designer: Yeah , yeah , yeah and colours also , different colours , and project manager: Yeah I user interface: - colours . marketing: And that you you say that won't add too much to the budget ? industrial designer: No no no , it won't  I don't think it will be like , marketing: To d the shape is  industrial designer: you can have you know for  if you want ther there to be more project manager: It just build a mould basically and  you know . project manager: As the budget we're looking at if you build one mould I don't think that's going to make a big difference whether it's gonna be square or industrial designer: Yeah . marketing: Do you think there's any chance of  having ser in having basically the same machine with the same buttons but maybe several different shapes ? industrial designer: Yeah that is also possible I  yeah I I yeah . project manager: I think we will have to look at the budget on that industrial designer: Yeah that will be project manager: but I think in principle that that would be that would be kind of fun , you know . marketing: Because we had something sort of sexy for adults and we could have something sort of industrial designer: marketing: silly for children project manager: Like an animal or marketing: or a little animal shape or in a or a little elephant so they can remember where it is . industrial designer: And and the butto buttons also I think if you want to have more features in your remote controller then there should be more buttons . If you have less features then your remote controller won't be attractive , so I think  we need to make some buttons which are which are like   f in  in intended for two or three operations , like if you press one button in one mode then it will change the channel , if you press the other button in another mode it will change the colour . So if you want to have less buttons we can have that option but I think it will complicate the matter more I think so . Well , I think I think that that's something that we'll have to discuss  with the User Interface person user interface: Yes . marketing: because I think there's a lot of argument to be made for one button for one feature . Because I think one of the things were complaining about in my what I found out in my research is when they complained about how hard it is to learn a new one . marketing:  you and I , all f all four of us we work with computers all the time , industrial designer: Yeah . marketing: changing modes is nothing for us , but people who project manager: Yeah , a little elderly , a little arthritic hand you know , marketing: N and project manager: and and it's a small button and and it they don't press it exactly industrial designer: project manager: you know something else happens n not their favourite channel comes up but something else industrial designer: Yeah , yes . marketing: And that's and that's the kind of thing people learn by feel , and  you don't feel the mode change . marketing: You know , like the a triangle is for the volume and a square is for changing channels , so that people can  develop a tactile sense of it . industrial designer: yeah , and also text should be very clear so that there there won't be any ambiguities and  marketing: That's right , yeah . project manager: industrial designer: And  display clock i if you want more features then we can display a clock it I I don't think it will take any money extra money because anyway we have an integrated circuit I think we can just definitely fit that feature into the circuit so it's marketing: Yeah , that's that's a good that's a good one , project manager: - , industrial designer: Yeah , and then you can just see your remote controller yeah yeah yeah so project manager: Yeah you're sitting there already or maybe you have no other  user interface: Yes . marketing: and Yeah , and a lot of time there's not a clock on the screen , and you have to go somewhere but you just wanna look at the news for a minute . industrial designer:  components  the main components we need for  it ha like buttons and  underneath that there should be switch . Like  we can have a bulb like whenever we are operating a remote controller or  whenever the T_V_ is on suppose , user interface:  . industrial designer: Then it will be like if you switch on your T_V_ through anoth another source , not from through a remote remote controller and you you lost your remote controller maybe you can find with the light . industrial designer: chip which is like a brain to the remote controller which does all the operations , project manager: And   of course there should be a case where we can keep all the things and , you know different shapes or whatever it is there should be a case to put to give a shape .  I have referred the site  the homepage of the  our website ,  from where I have   I got s few points . marketing: So it  we should visit this site and have a look at  what's up there ? Or industrial designer:  . industrial designer:  it's not like that , I have referred the page to get new ideas or like what can be the working design to how it works and all and so and so . Could you go back to that slide where she had that  s slide up Betsy ? industrial designer: it's actually there now , there on the screen . Would you want it full full screen ? user interface: I can make it full ? Yes yes yes . As  User Interface Designer I did a little research to find out what are the features which a user would like to have on their remote . user interface: So I found out that  but  the main purpose of a remote is to  f control the function of a television at a far off distance at remote distance . Now for that ,  a remote controller should have a switch on off button by which a user can sit anywhere in the room in front of the T_V_ and he can control the functionalities different functionalities of the T_V_ . user interface: There should be a signal  something like a radio wave or a infrared light or a LED which can be used to change the different functionalities in the television if the user wants to  change the channels or increase the volume he can change it . user interface: Now there should be some timer to set for viewing a particular a particular programme or switching on and off a  a particular programme according to the user choice . So if if he want to view a particular programme at say nine o'clock he can set the time , and the T_V_ will automatically it will switch on at that particular time . user interface: So he can use that kind of   properties of features and then there should be a child lock system if a particular channel is not to be viewed by a particular  for a certain age , then the parents can lock that particular channel so that the ch children cannot view that channel . user interface: And  the  the  and the one of the feature a user would like to have is the compactness of the co remote . user interface:  t the remote should be compact and it should ha it should have as many buttons as possible for controlling different functionalities of the T_V_ television . And   as   this is my personal preference that it should be in the shape of a T_ in alphabet for more compactability . user interface: And  and  and it is one more point which I noted it down , like  the material which which which is used for remotes should be human friendly it should not cause any skin disease or something some al allergy to either children or to  ad adult person . user interface: And it should have an  it can have an alarm clock a a person if some if somebody wants to get up at around eight eight P_M_ then he can set the time and it can be used as an alarm clock , industrial designer:  . user interface: and I don't think it will cost much to set an alarm clock inside a remote . user interface: and as John Reece said the buttons can be ,  can me we can use the fluorescence to light up the buttons so different  buttons will glow differently . So in even in the dark the user can know what buttons to use to switch on a particular channel . And   the design of the   remote should be in such a way that there should not be any sharp projections so that if a child plays with a remote , he  he should not be harmed in any way . user interface: And findings ,  I found out  y  on different sites that  there are different remotes which can be used , there are remotes which use the infrared for controlling the different functionalities , there are remotes which use the radio waves to control the functions and there are  So  there you have different  types of remotes for different light source which are used which can be used for controlling the different functionalities of a television . Not ,  no  like it can it can be used as a T_V_ control as plus an alarm clock to set an alarm a timing and it should have a child lock , and then to save electricity  there should not be  much s move  lots of circuits and all that . And if a person if if if parents wants the television to be switched off by ten o'clock then it should be switched off ten o at ten o'clock automatically , so that nobody else comes later and use it . industrial designer: It's like a t okay , it's like a timer it's like a lock to the television . project manager:  okay , now I have On my slide show basically we already we have already done the agenda , and  on the closing  basically there will be lunch break and all that . project manager: Yeah , and I think today there are probably not many people who don't have a T_V_ . Now , talking about the target group which is in a sense everybody , but I think within the target group we have subgroups . We have we have earlier it was mentioned about  for example elderly people who have limited function with their fingers and hands , user interface: project manager:  then we have just the nervous people who can never press a little button on anything  unless it's really very clear . project manager: And  I don't know how much we want to cater to children's use . project manager: So this these are just some thoughts I have on it , and  I dunno what you feel about whether we can just say we have one target group and for this one target group we're gonna design this one thing marketing: project manager: or whether we're looking at what we like we we talking about different shapes , whether that different shape also includes maybe different  buttons  for different groups . marketing: So if you've designed something that's very attractive to children  the mummy please mummy please  you know we want it now we wanna go to the store and see it  that has  a lot of marketing pull . user interface: project manager: That has a lot of that has a lot of appeal but I think  I'm I'm talking about the functionality now on it whether we're looking at different groups . project manager: You know , like you make it nice and pink , fluorescent , banana colour or whatever you know user interface: Different colours . project manager: Do we look at one target group ? And with the twenty five Euros you know can we can we afford to have  I'm asking the technical people here whether  to look at sort of subgroups with maybe different buttons for each group how much would that throw us out of the cost we are supposed to respect ? user interface: marketing: Respect . No  generally we can we can design a remote which is mainly for people with  f age from ten to  forty project manager: Right . user interface: and and then we can add on  specific functional buttons for children as well as the elderly people or the people wit with who have nervous problems , yes . industrial designer: We can design different remotes for different people , like for aged people there will be big buttons and you know . project manager: Well that's that's user interface: But in a family in a family there will be a aged person , children and a middle aged but they cannot buy three different remotes . user interface: They would like to buy just one and  just one which can be used all the three  industrial designer: Yeah of course that we can do , but specifically if y if like elderly people want big buttons then you can't really make a bi big remote controller so maybe specifically you can design a big con remote controller for elderly and for children , like in a different you know . marketing: What about the electronics ? That's not really gonna change much , is it ? project manager: Yeah . project manager: No marketing: That that w that won't change much , will it  ? industrial designer: Yeah . project manager: The the quest the question to be addressed here is only who is the target group and how will it function , marketing: I d I wouldn't think so . project manager: and I think the how will it function is probably the question of the buttons you know , within the target group or subgroups . project manager: The question is only whether our budget will allow to have more than one design in a sense . project manager: but the question is how much will that set us back if let's say  forty percent we make large buttons and the rest we make regular buttons for example . project manager: So that remains to s to be seen but  the target group as a whole is is basically everybody with a T_V_ . marketing: and can we can we is it even feasible to make one one remote control with something for everyone , or would we have to use the same electronics and make three different shapes ? project manager: Yeah , well that's that's the question . marketing: And in that case we could probabl moulded plastic isn't all that expensive is it ? industrial designer:  no . marketing:  you as an industrial person ? project manager: Well maybe there's there's an idea you know t the new for example new portable phones ? marketing: project manager: They have like removable plastic cases , so you can have a striped one or you can have a fluorescent blue one , or whatever , marketing: Yeah . project manager: that in each package you know you have you you have you have for example  you have let's say a fluorescent blue on it but then you have  another colour or stripe whatever that already comes in a package . project manager: You know , industrial designer: Yeah , like for mobile phones we have  different you know covers , like designs and all so that w we can have that . project manager: and but like if if then everybody is is is tired of the fluorescent blue and of the striped or whatever they have as another one in the package , marketing:  yeah . project manager: then they can go to the store and for a few  Francs or Euros whatever they can buy industrial designer: Yeah . user interface: But  yeah I I have a doubt like will it be cost wise effective if we if we design a remote having all the  different features for different people or designing three different  remotes for three different categories of people . project manager: Well I think I think the idea here is to  to to d design one remote industrial designer: Yeah , but  marketing: Well I think we can only aff , yeah . project manager: the functional functional cosmetics if you want to put it that way , user interface: Okay . project manager:  having maybe larger buttons or buttons that light up or buttons that are slightly differently shaped for people  either for children  user interface: user interface: industrial designer: marketing: Well we may have to come back to one or two of these points at our next meeting but  industrial designer: Yeah , maybe , yeah , yeah . industrial designer:  yeah , project manager: Do we agree , do we ? industrial designer: I think maybe seventy percent is a unique   remote controller and thirty percent is yeah it's sort of like yeah . marketing: Okay but we have to l project manager: Do we agree on on that in principle , like money will tell whether we will be able to do that or not


project manager:  in the last meeting  the marketing manager had presented  her method of working , meaning gathering i suggestions from everyone to see how she best could market  this this product at the within the budget  that was given . In addition to that to make it sell , of course ,  the marketing manager w wishes that it be very attractive , marketing: project manager: or like she says put some sizzle into it in one way or another so that the people are buying it now because , in particular with smaller items , that's a very important fact , 'cause  if they say , well , I go home and think about it , that won't work . project manager: Our technical manager has then said that she feels it should have a chip marketing: project manager: that has infra-red bits and it has an interface controls w interface that controls the chip . If too many buttons are pressed ,    child lock  and  maybe a display clock so that people could  you could see the time , you know , what show they want to watch . So the components of the thing should be button , bulbs , infra infra-red bulbs , battery , chips , wires , and maybe some kind of a holder  for the for the  item . project manager: interface designer   has mentioned that the that it , of course , should have an on-off button , and also has mentioned an interesting feature that it should have maybe a channel lock . marketing: project manager: And even possibly a timer to so that people can program their favourite   program on th right from the remote . project manager:  are we all in agreement that that's about what we discussed last time ? Okay . And  I don't know whether the order matters much  , I don't I don't think so , so whoever w wants user interface: Okay , I can start first . user interface: Now as an interface designer , I would give more emphasis on the interface , how the remote looks like so that it is sellable , it is attractive to customers . This messages could be  switch on-off message or switch to next channel message or swapping the channels or switching onto a particular channel , like you can have the numbers one , two , three , four , up to nine . project manager: Nine what ? Nine channel  switches ? user interface: Pardon me ? project manager: Nine channel switches ? Is Yeah . user interface: by which using which you can swap the channels if you don't want to see the third channel you can swap it to the fourth channel or vice versa . Then it should have a next button , and next button channel by which you can keep on  v   eh scrolling the channels one by one . user interface: Then you should have a button which should which ca which can be used for increasing or decreasing the volume . user interface: Then , there should be a button which can give subtitles for a particular program which is going on a television . For example , if you are watching a French program and you would like to have a subtitles in English , then there should be a channel which can trigger this mechanism in the television so that the user can see  the the subtitles on the screen . user interface: Then there should d  there should be some buttons which can control features like the colour , colour of the picture , the contrast , sharpness , brightness of the picture . Suddenly if if if   viewer he gets a telephone call , and if he want he doesn't want to switch off the  T_V_ , but he he can reduce the sound , he can bring the volume down and he can watch he can  while talking he can watch the T_V_ . So a remote can be th can be  designed which can have the voice recognisers , you can record your own voice project manager: user interface: which can be recognised by as voice recogniser in the television , for example , if you want to see we if you want to see the ninth channel if you say just say ninth channel ,  th now the the  yeah , the remote will automatically it will switch to the ninth channel . user interface: So the T_V_ will have some recogniser which will recognise the user's voice and accordingly it will change its functionalities . user interface: Then , these are some of the remotes which are different in shape and colour , but they have many buttons . user interface: So  sometimes the user finds it very difficult to recognise which button is for what function and all that . Yeah , so this is one of the interface or one of the remote which has this vi voice recogniser . marketing: user interface: And this has multi-purpose use , it can be used for T_V_ , it can be used for cable-satellite , it can be used for V_C_R_ , D_V_D_s and audio . project manager: user interface: Can you go on to the next slide ? Yeah , now this is an interface for a chil  for a remote   which a child can use . user interface:  this is user-friendly , it's very attractive and  children can use it as well as they can play with it . user interface: And this this  child  interface has minimum buttons marketing: user interface: and all the important  buttons are there in this small , compact , attractive child interface . Now this is a big over-sized remote which cannot be misplaced or it's impossible to misplace . user interface: project manager: user interface: So this is No this is a very big , you cannot misplace it anywhere . marketing: user interface: So this is a jumbo universal remote control and it's impossible to im misplace or lose . And the personal preference  would be a spe   to incorporate speech recognisers  which will respond to user's voice for a particular  function .  any comments on  her presentation ? marketing: Well ,  looks like we still have quite a choice of things out there . I don't think that we can get  The T-shape is good , the child one is good , the too big to misplace , I think it's just funny . marketing:  I don't think that's gonna be our impulse purchase at the checkout counter . user interface: project manager: No , I think the these are her presentations , but  as far as the decision making we getting to that after after marketing: Yeah  . project manager: but if I just wanted to know whether anybody had any any anything to add to her presentation . industrial designer:  this time I'm I'm going to  concentrate more on the components and the technical side of the remote controller design . marketing: industrial designer:  the first one is case to keep all the components like integrated circuit , battery , etcetera , etcetera , it's like  it can be a plastic one , hard plastic , so that it can be strong , even if you just   , you know , if you if it falls down , then it doesn't break . industrial designer: yeah , and also  using of colouring compon components like  if we want to have different colours , blue , red , green , so   we have to use  some colouring compone compone components . marketing: industrial designer:  which  we can use a highly sophisticated one because it's like the it's like the heart of the remote controller . If it is not efficient then everything wi is going to be  like  the lef ess less efficient so it you should we should have a highly sophisticated one . Suppose if it is thirty-eight degrees outside forty degrees outside , it should it should  be able to re  resist the  temperature   highs and  high temperatures and low temperatures . And the  other component we should  we have in the remote controller is a resistor  which is like   i it is very very much important for the electricity  flow through through through the  remote controller and  also a capacitor which is a b which is a m I think it's it's like a battery , capacitor . industrial designer:  a diode , a transistor , a resonator , these are all this  technical  electri electronic compons  components which are which we have to use in a remote controller . A battery  , I would like to suggest one thing  if we  if we will be able to make a res rechargeable battery then we sh we need not go for a high performance battery , even if it is a low performance battery it ca it can't l it can't charge much . Then also we can If it is a rechargeable one , then  people can use it for a long time , so in that way we can cut cut the cost , but w   that we have to make the battery as rechargeable one .  when you press a button , when you do that , you complete a specific connection that means when you when you press a button there will be a s a small circuit underneath the button , and it will send some signals through the wires , marketing: industrial designer: and then  the chip will send start connection and knows that which button is pressed . Suppose you have pressed channel one button , number one you have pressed , then the  chip will know that the number one button was pressed . marketing: industrial designer: It pros produces a mors morse code line signal specific to that button . Suppose  the  user has pressed butto button one , then it will have a spe the circuit will generate a specific morse code to b that that button , and the transistor will amplify the signal and send then to the L_E_D_ which translates the signal into infrared light . It will amplify the signal and it will send it to the L_E_D_ and which translates the signal into an infra infrared bits . The sensor on the T_V_ can see the infrared light , and seeing the signal seeing the signal re it reacts appropriately , that when it sees the amplified mo morse code signal , then it will  it will  know which  what what action it has to  do . When you look at the   remote controller  it's it's it this is a normal remote controller . And  if you open the remote controller you have this circui circuit board and few electronic components , marketing: industrial designer: like you can see a chip there which is having eighteen pins , project manager: industrial designer: and also a capac  a capacitor , three resistors and also a resonator    yeah , and di and a diode transistor . industrial designer: The electronic components  all of the electronic components have all those  things like a chip and d diode transistors an Yeah , di  can y  you can see the T_A_ double one eight three five labelled  chip  . industrial designer:  you can also see the   the green two green things are  these are they are they are resistors , user interface: industrial designer: and  just beside that you can see a transistor , and a   cylinder shape ,  that one is a capacitor . Actually ,  building a circuit bo board is pretty pretty  easy and also it's a it's a l l inexpensive .  it's it costs less than what you print on a paper , because   when you when you are building  some circuits some   circuits and also wires , it's it's better to go for printing , because  you can build these kind of k circuit boards on a on a bulk and it's just printing , nothing like  , you know , you don't need to use wires and all . So th that green  thing is a circuit board , and also you can see  there are b s like   access for buttons , like when you press a button , the circuit under the button will be activated  th it will it will he get some signals from it and it will  it will ch its ch se send a signal signals to the , yeah ,  integrated circuit . And  like  we have  designed  before we have seen some  few things like instead off buttons we have some scrolls .  b but a b a push-button requires a simple chip underneath it , but whereas a scroll wheel requires normally a regular chip which is a higher price range . industrial designer:  and a as energy source we offer a basic battery , a more ingenious  hard dynamo ,  a kinetic provision of energy , more than what is that you shake casually to provide energy . Like we can have a ma material such as plastic , rubber , wood , titanium , but titanium we can't use .  and also for electronics we can use a simple and regular  re or an advanced chip on the print ,  also infra it includes the infrared se sender . project manager: Any particular comments by anybody ? marketing:  yeah , on the scroll and the push-button ,  ca you can achieve scrolling by repeatedly pushing a button ? industrial designer: No , no , no , th the the the scrolling wheels are different , like you can go for a sw switches like buttons or scrolls ,  which which we used to do before ten ten years before , I think . industrial designer: Now , nobody uses that because you need you need a a k sophisticated chip and all . project manager: We don't have a lot of time left and we will still have to make a decision , and the marketing expert has to present her her thing . marketing:  alright , my method is  I'm interested in what the competition is doing , and wanna see how we can make ourselves different from the competition , so I've really been looking at the press and the ads that are out there for other remote controllers . And then when I'm out  in people's houses or at meetings or anything like that , I try to notice what kind of remote controls people have , and if it's convenient in the conversation I ask about it . They don't want to have to squint at small print  , they want buttons whose functions are obvious , and they want  as few buttons as possible , and they don't care for the mode thing .  and our preference is , as far as I'm concerned , are we got to get to the market before the competition . Ours has to be look really great and it has to come out before the others , so that we have a leg up on time to sell it and push it before other people get out their Christmas item . If we try to tell people it has too many great features ,  the consumer just gets confused and we don't get anywhere . So we've gotta narrow our selection down to li two things , I think , that we gonna say are really great about our our our new product . They are more back into soft feel , spongy feeling things , things with maybe a little cloth on them . project manager: And  so what do we think on the concept marketing: project manager: of the remote ? marketing: You wanna try to come back to yours , and limit yours a bit ? project manager: Y user interface:  yes , I would like to include this feature which is called as voice recogniser . marketing: So speech recognition is most important as far as you're concerned ? user interface: This could be  one feature which could be sellable . industrial designer: Yeah , but w marketing: Yeah h that could that could that could be our star feature . industrial designer: Yeah , but but I what I'm  very very much doubtful how how  far it will work , because a speech recogniser like i it it has its own   problems , issues . marketing: Distance problem ? industrial designer: Yeah , it's not distance problem it it's recognising a person's voice , user interface: industrial designer: like maybe different people will be having different voices , so it like it's  everything so i marketing:  . project manager: Well , you you teach You have to teach  industrial designer: So to get a good recogni recognising system , it's a costly thing , I think . marketing: user interface: No , it's it's ,  yeah , it it's like your recording of  all   a question already , and then you're expecting an answer from th For example , you have a T_V_ system , I'm the user and my family members are the user , industrial designer: user interface: I will already record  a question like ,  good morning , industrial designer: Yeah , but Yeah . user interface: So I'll say just good morning and the T_V_ will switch on . project manager: Okay , before we get too far off here  , the components of the concept is the energy . project manager: User interface concept ,  interface type , supplements marketing: project manager: That will be your area I think , right , Jana . user interface: Supplements like different types of features buttons , like can have a f mute button or a swapping button . marketing: Well , I think that Yeah , project manager: Oh , like marketing: or or like her speech recognition would also be a supplement . marketing: Okay , so why don't we put down speech recognition if possible pending some more research from our industrial engineer on how expensive that is .  our next meeting will be in thirty minutes , and the  I_D_ is to this is the individual actions to be taken until then , to have the look and feel design , and  the U_I_D_ is supposed to  come up with the user interface design , industrial designer: project manager: In this phase , the two of you , Jana and Francine , have to work together on a prototype using modelling clay , it says here . project manager:  if you have any questions , you know , you you can always  contact me  or  or your coach , I suppose . user interface: marketing: Wherever they're hiding ? industrial designer: project manager: user interface: project manager:  so  I think we conclude the meeting here and we come back in   thirty minutes , according to our timetable here