Richard Seymour

This words comes from Richard Seymour, co-founder of Seymourpowell at the Product Design + Innovation conference 18-19 may 2011 in London.

And he continues: “Consumer research and pre-market testing of products does not lead to innovation”.

Seymour warned the designers that expecting consumers to know what they want in products of the future is a mistake.

“If you ask consumers what they want, at best they will say what they want right now,” he said.

He showed a clip of a man filmed for a stair lift design project who had told Seymour that the new design must not do away with the key-based lock on his existing stair lift. Yet, in the clip, the man clearly struggles to work the lock.

“I never listen… I always watch,” said Seymour. “Look for when someone says one thing and does another and, bingo, that’s the seed.”

Instead, industrial designers should realise it is down to them to create an outstanding product. “There’s one thing that no focus group can create – that’s beauty. That’s you,” said Seymour.

Read more here.