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Bryan Hynecek and the folks at Ignition teamed up with the Texas Instruments DLP Products Group and students from The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, putting together a program that would enable video gaming experts the chance to design their "ideal product"--a video projector design specifically for gamers. Here's a taste:
...Trey's foam model was also very large. The optical engine necessary for his concept wasn't driving the size however; the circuit boards that needed to generate the desired performance were. He understood that gamers were tolerant of larger products (such as gaming consoles or computer towers), but only if they were high performance. TI later found a new set of boards that would get Trey to a more comfortable size, so the team updated the foams.The next step was to reconvene with the electrical engineers from TI. When they saw the foam models, their eyes brightened. The projector business has always been a race for the next smaller and brighter unit, which forces projectors to be a shoe box shape with offset lens—but these models were a breath of fresh air. TI brought engineer after engineer into the conference room; they brought people in from other meetings; they stopped anyone walking through the halls just to show them the foam models. None of the models stayed on the table for more than five minutes...
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Comments
So basically the students just designed the look of it, and picked out color schemes. This isn't user designed, they just got some gamers from a local college and said make pretty shapes and colors.
Still an interesting read though.
I look forward to seeing how the projectors perform as I am an avid gamer myself, and a HCI major.
Fantastic post - the future of product design definitely exists in incorporating the user into the design process from the outset more frequently. This project, (though not user designed exactly) illustrates a wider point, that these collaborations will provide better education (for user and designer) and ultimately a better product. The product designers role will change from being the final solution to being the solution facilitator!