Design: o papel gerencial e conceitual do designer no projeto de produtos complexos

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to show how a large number of variables, involving a broad spectrum of knowledge, could be seen by the professionals of industrial design involved in the development of a product of High Technology Complexity (HTC): an electro-mechanical hospital bed. Initially the process used was exploratory research carried out on the internet and visits to hospital medical equipment tradeshows. From this preliminary analysis, it was observed that the creative process that would generate the final product was clearly different from that followed in the ways of creating simpler products. This project received inputs from different sources such as engineering, ergonomics, and also the medical professionals, taking into account economic, social and psychological factors, all coordinated by a detailed work plan in phases and management techniques. Factors such as the strict necessity of observing technical rules governing the hospital product certification and a concern with the cost and durability of the product increased the complexity of the task to design similar equipment. All this was done by a fixed multidisciplinary professional team, but often in the course of the project needed to interact with other professionals temporarily attached to it. The resulting design combined the need for innovation with a careful and balanced management work of many very different factors together have shaped the final conFiguration. Questions and dilemmas that arise during the development were overcome through technical meetings and functional tests with models and mock-ups. It was concluded that a product of High Technology Complexity (HTC) as an electromechanical hospital bed cannot be conceived through instant or dramatic flashes of imagination, but it is shaped by progressive work, methodical, collective and integrated.