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Behind design at Dell

Kathryn McConnachie
By Kathryn McConnachie, Digital Media Editor at ITWeb.
Johannesburg, 10 Jun 2011

From customisable lighting on a keyboard, to a netbook that can become a tablet, the user is the key informant for new product developments at Dell.

At the Dell Tech Camp, held this week in London, the computer giant showcased its new product offerings, while also providing a behind the scenes view of the Dell design process.

Erin Walline, director of user experience at Dell, is responsible for conducting user insight and usability testing, which is used to inform product design.

One of the products on display was the Inspiron Duo - a netbook that can be used as a tablet. The device is Dell's first attempt in this market space.

"The Inspiron Duo was actually born out of the user research that we did," explained Walline. "Netbooks got out there and had their pros and cons, so we came up with the idea of creating a netbook-type solution for a secondary device, but also with the ability of having it turn into a tablet."

While the device has been met with some criticism for its limiting netbook capabilities, Walline said Dell is looking at ways to improve the product.

Ideas and inspiration

"When we do usability studies and focus groups, we work with a third-party recruiting firm to find the correct user based on our target market," noted Walline, explaining that the users inform many aspects of the products from conceptualisation to construction.

“Switch” is such an example of user feedback being incorporated in product design. The concept allows for users to switch between different cover designs for their laptops.

"We introduced Switch, with the idea that people love the concept of buying laptop lids that can be interchangeable.

"We partnered with regional artists in the UK and US to come up with what we call our design studio designs - of which we now have hundreds.

"We think that with the introduction of the Switch concept, we are going to be able to sell a lot more devices, because people love the idea of personalisation."

Dragons and dogs

The Dell design lab has also incorporated user feedback into the Alienware range of computers and laptops for gamers.

Walline explained: “We found that not only did people obviously want performance and power for a strong gaming machine, but even some of the bells and whistles that popped up in some of our other products made their way to Alienware.”

One such example is the interface incorporated into the Alienware laptops that allows users to choose different colours for different zones on the keyboard and the ability to programme the colours to change at different times, in different patterns.

The Alienware Aurora Swift desktop tower design was also informed by user feedback. According to Dell, gamers want their PC to play more of an active role in the gaming experience. The vents on top of the tower have, as a result, been designed to be active.

"When you start to over-clock the CPU and it starts to heat up the vents rise up," explained Walline.

"The analogy is the hair on the back of an angry dog; that's where the idea came from. It can then also do it dynamically so the user can set when the vents rise and what colour lighting there is - so it can be like a breathing dragon."

Weird and wonderful

For Walline, one of the weirdest things to emerge from usability studies recently was to do with keyboard durability.

"We had one user say 'Can you keep my cat from picking off the keys on my laptop?' In cases like that you have to think, well I'm not sure if cat-claw retention is going to make it into our usability report, but we can still do our best to keep fingernails from catching on the keys."

Industrial design engineering director, Michael Smith, was another one of the Dell representatives who was there to explain the process behind bringing a product to market.

"We have huge labs dedicated to mimicking things like transportation via delivery trucks, and extensive environmental testing," said Smith.

"We call it shake and bake, and we take devices into high humidity environments, as well as walk-in fridges where temperatures are dropped below freezing.

"We also have machines that shake the devices to death, while others check the strength of the hinges and so on."

Smith added that some devices have to meet military standards. "We received a letter from a Navy Seal, who was shot in the back three times and he had a Dell Latitude in his backpack and it saved his life - and apparently it even still functioned afterwards."

Look and feel

Smith and Walline noted that as prices for consumer electronics begin to drop, the question of how cheap one can go when it comes to creating a new product is always being asked in the design lab.

"We've gone about as far as we can go," commented Smith. "In the past, we've made the mistake where we didn't put a spec around twist and flex and it didn't meet customer expectations. Even in the mainstream and lower end products, there's a certain point where you can go too far."

"Something that we've tried to do is take projective data and translate that into projective measures," explained Walline.

"So we might actually do a study where we're looking at people testing the rigidity of a device and asking them 'how flexible does that feel to you?' And we measure that against how flexible it actually is, and we try to translate the user feedback into actual numbers. We can then say this many millimetres is allowed until it starts to feel 'cheap'."

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