Answer
Design principles at Braun AG and the new Braun Multimix
1 Braun is proud of its success in aesthetic design. What benefit do you think this gives the company with the domestic appliance buying public?
Image, image, and image. Consumers are influenced by two issues in domestic appliances such as those Braun makes. The first is how easy they are to use and the second is what they look like. Increasingly, the latter is becoming important as consumers become more style conscious. This is a consequence of increasing affluence in many markets. It is important for Braun to have their brand associated with stylish design. A succession of aesthetically pleasing products does more to establish the brand value of Braun than any amount of advertising.
2 Braun’s ten industrial design principles are applied above to a domestic appliance. How do you think they might change if they were applied to an industrial product such as a machine tool?
a) Usefulness – important for Braun but even more important for a machine tool.
b) Quality – again, important for Braun but even more important for a machine tool, especially the ideas of functionality and reliability.
c) Ease of use – also important for a machine tool, however, the user of a machine tool can be assumed to have some specific skills which will help him or her perform tasks such as routine maintenance.
d) Simplicity – again important but possibly not as vital as with a domestic appliance.
e) Clarity – controls etc. on a machine tool have to be clear but not ‘idiot proof’ as on a domestic appliance.
f) Order – perhaps not as important in a machine tool.
g) Naturalness – again, not as important for the machine tool.
h) Aesthetics – again, not as important but not totally unimportant either. The looks of a machine tool must reflect the image that the manufacturer is trying to project. Precision and reliability for the machine tool, rather than style and sophistication for the domestic appliance.
i) Innovation – just as important for the machine tool as for the domestic appliance.
j) Truthfulness – again, an important principle for both.