Chapter Discussion

Botswana’s understanding of the term ‘Design’ according to this study is not far off from the global definition; thus “satisfying a user need by providing an innovative product that improves people’s lives.” The understanding of the term ‘Design’

deduced from the literature review is “A satisfying and planning activity towards a desirable product or outcome aimed for industrial production.” Design awareness in Botswana averages from design being limited to product styling to being used to launch product and services on the market. SS was the only company that showed signs of using design as a continual innovative process, driving most business activities. It has a product design manager that is a trained designer, and strived for continual improvement of their design processes as well as the products.

For the interviewed Botswana companies, UCD as an approach to new product development is not fully understood. However, the basic business principle that the

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customer is always right might have unknowingly moved them closer towards a UCD approach. Despite not being familiar with the term UCD, almost all companies involve the user at the beginning and at the end of the project, to collect user needs and testing the final product. The interviewed companies show user involvement in the PDP is neither organized nor structured; and the user is randomly involved.

The industrial design training programs offered in Botswana are familiar with UCD and its benefits to NPD. However, UCD is introduced late in the industrial design programs. Thus, students graduate with minimal understanding of the application and importance of UCD approaches to new product development. Even though both universities claim to have strong industry links, they admit more needs to be done to learn from industry and introduce UCD activities earlier in their industrial design programs.

Two thirds of the interviewed companies saw themselves as market leaders regionally. MJ was looking to grow the brand image, SS were seeking to continually transform methodologies and IKA more looking into using latest technologies (for example CNC manufacture). While the other company (ABE) saw itself relying less on government tenders and targeting the private market more. Evidently these companies are already looking in the right direction and their aspirations could be assisted by a better understanding of the user and UCD.

5.6 Chapter Conclusion

Not all targeted entities participated in this study, a total of nine companies participated in the study and two universities (UB and LUCT) that offer industrial design degree participated. At the moment the study is only applicable to the companies/ organisations that participated. This study also allowed the researcher to better understand industries in Botswana and paves way to a more context appropriate study design for subsequent data collections.

The time available for the study was limited and as a result there were days when more than two interviews were conducted. In contrast to one interview per day, recommended by (Price, 2001). Both questions and follow-up questions were asked to all participants, thus allowing everyone to have the same information. The unreliability of the industry data and Botswana’s small manufacturing sector, led to the use of a snowball technique to discover more potential participants. Entities with

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valid contact details were contacted upon arrival in Botswana. Moving around visiting each company also added to data collection expenses. However, the process of contacting and conducting these semi-structured interviews provided a valuable experience informing the development of future studies in Botswana.

Having conducted the scoping study, it was important to find out “what evidence of levels of sophistication does the customer/user involvement ever go beyond

traditional functional consideration onto interaction experience?

5.6.1 What was learnt from this study

Most of the questions from the scoping study were repeated in this study as the nature of a scoping study was to define the scope of the project. The researcher also wanted some of the questions to be responded to, by a larger sample size.

Moreover, the nature of a follow-up question was evaluated as to whether it can be best answered the subsequent Survey or Interview study. Table 29 show themes derived from the scoping study findings; furthermore, it also shows questions derived for the next studies and the data collection methods to be used per question.

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Table 29: Themes from the scoping study.

Themes from the scoping study? Derived questions for the next study Understanding of the term “Design” was similar to the

global definition.

What is your definition of design, designer and designing? [Interviews]

Advantages and added value of design were,

meeting clients’ expectations through product and/ or process improvement.

What is the importance of design in a PDP?

[Survey]

Companies have few qualified design personnel and not led by personnel with a design background.

Does your company employ qualified designers for design related work? [Survey]

The user is mainly involved at the beginning of the PDP and then randomly afterwards.

How important is design at the following stages of the PDP? [Survey]

The use of design processes for most of these companies is project specific and do not use any company approved process as a base for approaching different projects.

Does your company document the PDP? [Survey]

Design effectiveness is measured through, more contracts, repeat orders, user appreciation, field testing and feedback from non-design staff within the company.

How do you measure the design effectiveness?

The majority of companies (2/3) did little or no market research; instead, they relied on word of mouth for marketing and publicity.

Does your company undertake market research?

[Survey]

Two thirds of the interviewed companies have Botswana government as a major stakeholder.

How important is incorporating the user into the PDP?

[Survey]

The majority (two thirds) of companies measured the effectiveness of UCD at the end of the PDP (site visits and field tests). Other means of measuring UCD success included, repeat jobs and more contracts.

At which stage of the product development process do you measure product usability? [Interviews]

Methods used to collect user needs included questionnaires, interviews, baseline survey and site visits. The data collected included ergonomic, finish (colour, material etc.), functionality and usability.

How does your PDT know what the user wants in a product?

How does your PDT know what the customer wants in a product?

How do you know what product to develop?

[Survey]

The user is mainly involved at the beginning of the product development process and randomly afterwards.

Rate the importance of involving the user at different stages of the PDP?

Do you get your customers involved in the product development process? [Survey]

The majority of participants indicated that the management encouraged interaction with the client.

Besides offering students internships, participants reported not having ties with training or institutions;

apart from.

Does your company have links with training and/ or educational institutions? [Survey]

Unavailability of data on Botswana’s design industry. The researcher allocated more time to identifying relevant participating companies. [Survey]

The term UCD was alien to most of the participants. Instead of using the term UCD, the researcher described UCD as “user involvement in PDP”

Interviewed companies saw themselves as market leaders regionally, grow brand image, and transform methodologies, use of latest technologies and less reliance on government.

Where do you see your company (future plans) in 5 years? [Survey]

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