Current Guidelines for mass customisation toolkits

One of the most cited specifications as a guideline for the design of MC toolkits is Von Hippel’s five objectives (2002). The specifications are as follows: first, the toolkit will have a solution space. This is generic, because a toolkit, in order to expose what the company can offer, needs one. Second, it will be user-friendly. This is referred to as ‘the ability of a sales configurator to adapt the description of a company’s product space to the individual characteristics of a potential customer as well as to the situational characteristics of his/her using of the sales configurator’ (Trentin et al. 2014). Third, it will provide a space for the customer for trial and error. The customer obviously needs to try different options in order to see the favourite outcome. Fourth,

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it will provide a library of common modules. Fifth, it will check if the final product is producible or not, considering any manufacturing limitations.

From the most cited specifications, to more recent ones, Hermans (2015) summarizes the ‘Guidelines for Developing Toolkits’ as below:

1- Domain-specific scope: the MC toolkit needs to be specifically for a product category or as mentioned, product domain. Thus, the toolkit is specific for a particular domain, but not too constrained.

2- Address multiple skills levels: the toolkit should be designed for multiple groups of people with heterogeneous skill levels. Consequently, advanced and novice users can use the system, which fits each group’s contextual needs.

3- Deliver the unexpected: the toolkit should provide unexpected features and specifications for the layperson. In other words, it needs to surprise the users and give them the opportunity to create something that they have not thought of or expected.

4- Four mechanisms to create variability: four mechanisms of generative, parametric, modular and veneer should be employed in order to create a better toolkit in terms of openness. For better outcomes, the designer may also use a combination of mechanisms to deliver a more satisfying toolkit. 5- Enable iteration: one of the key specifications of MC toolkits, identified by Von

Hippel (2002) similarly, is the ability to allow trial and error. The design team needs to enable trial and error in their toolkit. Therefore, the user can iterate between designs as many times as they want and choose whatever is suitable for them.

6- Adaptability in design and/or use time: this guideline shed light on the requirement to enable testing the customised products and the ability to customise them again after testing, until finally reaching satisfying products. This back and forth requirement may emerge in developing products that are adapted after purchasing, as discussed in adaptive MC (4.9 Consumer Involvement in MC).

7- Expandability (go beyond the toolkit): the toolkits need to have fluid boundaries, which allow them to interact with third-party software programs or export to file formats that are compatible with other programs. This research also found a way to transfer data between different interfaces for more flexibility by using Microsoft Office Excel.

8- Tailor to specific fabrication technique: as similarly specified by Von Hippel (2002), the toolkit must ensure that the final product is producible. Focusing

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on a specific manufacturing technology enables the designer not only to make sure the final customised product is producible, but also to deliver right tools, guidelines and features.

9- Non-linear navigation: as also indicated by Matt Sinclair (Sinclair 2012), it is recommended that the users have access to any navigation item at any time, regardless of any sequence or systematic navigation process. This will give enough freedom and openness to the layperson to do the design.

10- Appropriate visualisation: the visualisation of the products should be a good representation of the users’ choices and the final products. There is a variety of ways to visualise the product, which represent the choices, user make, and the final product. The important thing to consider is that appropriate visualisation should be chosen based on a trade-off between visual appeal, information, and technical constraints such as rendering time (Hermans 2015). In addition, Sinclair (2012)has presented the specification and design of a consumer design toolkit:

Table 4-2 Table of guidelines for designing a consumer design toolkit (Sinclair 2012) Detail design specifications

AM-enabled Parameter-based Maximum realism

visualisation Containing library of modules

and producibles Direct manipulation Including price feedback Considering type of

modularity Produced by manufacturer

Containing library of other user’s design Include design tools, such as

scale, etc.

Checking the manufacturability

Complemented with peer input

Extent of customisation Web-based without

installation Non-linear navigation Other new guidelines were discussed next. A report by 3D Gateway company on customisable products identifies a number of factors to consider while implementing a MC toolkit. It is divided into 5 different categories: product management system, website personalisation app, e-commerce website, auto artwork creation, and order & workflow management. The table below gives the guidelines in each category. Table 4-3 Important factors for toolkit implementation based on Gateway report (Gateway3D 2015)

Categories factors

Product Management System

● Choose a base image to personalise

● Add image areas with image resolution checking ● Add product colour or texture options

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● Add text areas and specify fonts, font sizes and font colours

● Add predesigned templates

● Select effects to represent different decoration methods

● Select other variables such as size ● Add backgrounds and thumbnail images ● Set up different print output options

Website Personalisation App

● Ability to connect to social images sources such as Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Google+

● Ability to measure the quality of images uploaded ● Tools to manipulate text and images

● Ability to auto format text to fit boxes ● Ability to curve and move text

● Option to have multi-sided or 3D products

● Ability to save products as well as add them to basket

e-commerce Website ● Add product purchasing capability to the website _{● Add design saving capability to the website}

Auto Artwork Creation

● Sublimation, digital & DTG Print - jpg, png or pdf ● Engraving - eps or svg

● Embroidery - good quality image to create dst ● Transfer - vector cut line around pdf

● Product configurator - parts list

Order & Workflow Management

● Batching orders by product type ● Auto resizing artwork

● Barcode scanning to confirm processes completed

● Carrier integration ● RIP software Integration

● Customer & retailer notifications

There are five key principles by Randall et al. (2005) which provide design guidelines for MC toolkits:

1- Customise the customisation process. Two different types of UI should be provided to the users: a need-based interface for non-experts and a parameter-based one for experts.

2- Provide starting points. The MC toolkit can provide an initial design from which the customer can continue his/her configuration. Furthermore, the initial design can be differentiated for each customer based on his/her preferred product properties.

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3- Support incremental refinement. A product comparison can be provided in order to provide alternatives intuitively to visually show trade-offs between different properties.

4- Exploit prototypes to avoid surprises. Since the utilisation of the product’s evaluations is often impossible due to configurations being unique in many cases, the toolkit needs to help the customers to anticipate the post-purchase experience. This can be implemented by features such as using the product virtually or enriched visualisation.

5- Teach the consumer. The customers need to be provided with technical background knowledge in order to increase their personal product domain knowledge. This can be done by providing a help button on the UI. This can help users in two ways: informing them of the reasons why a concrete configuration has been recommended, and explaining to users in situations where no solution can be found by the configuration system.

By analysing 800 online configurators the basic characteristics were detected as follows:

1- the summary of selected components should be available at the end of configuration process

2- Image of products, available for configuration, should be presented 3- Process navigation, if available, is structured on a horizontal plane 4- Choice fields are positioned next to and/or beneath the product picture 5- The visibility of the shopping cart, order button, and total price are clear

(Felfernig et al. 2014)

Based on a configurator application, which has taken into account the aforementioned characteristics, the important hints for designing an individual configurator UI are:

1- The logo should be put in a dominant position which is quickly identifiable 2- The navigation bar should be clearly visible and not shown as fragmented 3- In order to see the detail, the size of the image of the product for configuration

should be sufficient

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5- In all steps of a session, price (price tables) should be accessible

6- Users should be able to adapt their preferences (e.g. by back/forward navigation)

7- For completion purposes, a shopping cart and order-button should be available

Finally, more detailed discussion on usability issues from Rogoll and Piller (2004) are as follows:

1- Operability and self-explanation. The configuration steps should be built up logically, to makes it obvious how to navigate through the configuration process. The configuration system should be impressive with intuitive handling and navigation, and create the feeling of success as users go through the configuration process.

2- Customer orientation. The whole proposal and functionalities that the system offers should be given to the customer. For this purpose, transparency and traceability of the software is necessary for acting fast, and being provident and goal-oriented.

3- Individual access to information. In order to make the information accessible to the user in any possible access method, which enables them to process, accumulate, and retrieve information in their own way, different kinds of textual, visual, alphabetical, numerical, chronological or geographical information should be provided.

4- Loading time. Since most of the users access high-speed internet, it does not play an important role. However, the visualisation or actualisation after the configuration step should not take too much time for loading.

5- Support. Support for the configuration system can be provided for customers to deal with possible problems and not just to give extra information; however, it is naturally a requirement for the system to be used without any help needed. These are general guidelines, and a specific guideline for AM-enabled MC toolkits from the users’ point of view to improve UX is still lacking. That is, a design team has some tools in hand to decide firstly the feasibility of creating an AM-enabled toolkit, and then consider the features needed for creating a user-centreed interface.