OLYMPUS TECHNOZONE Vol.52 2001-12
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The Joy of Seeing Your Design in Action
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----Have you ever seen products you designed in actual
use?
Yes. I can't tell you how happy it makes me
feel. In my case, I've been a member of consumer product design
teams since I joined the company, so I've been very fortunate in
this respect. Incidentally, I've been in charge of recorders for
about half my career with Olympus. I have vivid memories of the
first-generation digital recorders. When we manufactured a prototype
for the Olympus Technology Fair 1980 (OFT80), it was so well-received
that it was commercialized without requiring any modification to
its basic design.
It makes me very happy to come across a product
that I was responsible for. My best memory is when I was designing
cameras, some young ladies asked me to take their picture at a
ski resort and the camera they handed me was the one that I had
designed. I couldn't stop myself from saying, "What a nice
camera!" (laugh)
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Many
sketches and models have ultimately led to the CAMEDIAC-700
Ultra Zoom.
(Click on image to see the sketches) |
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Once when there was a geological field work
scene on TV, participants were using the Camedia. And I could see
our microscopes here and there in the research labs. It made me
feel wonderful. When your product is used in the most advanced
laboratory in the world, it gives you a great feeling of pride
as a professional designer.
I'm sure that people who are involved in making
products at manufacturers all feel the same way.
Yes, now I always watch interviews with race-car
drivers ever since I saw the D1000 digital voice recorder I had
designed. There is one reporter who always uses it when he interviews
the F1 racer, Michael Schumacher.
You can actually use the cameras and recorders
you designed or manufactured, but when it comes to medical equipment,
you can't really use it yourself. And there is so much you can't
know unless you see where and how the equipment is used. It could
have a good design, but it's not a good product unless it is compatible
with the environment where it is used. It is important for both
the designer and hardware developer to collaborate with users'
needs in mind. They must believe in what they are making. For the
two new models in the BX series we are about to release, I had
the designer actually see how the current models were being used
in the field before starting any design work. We sometime give
the prototype an on-site trial.
There are times when the design concept is correct on paper, but it doesn't do
the job in the field. And the location where the product is placed or installed
has its own restrictions, too.
If you are not a user yourself, you have to know the product very well or you
will end up making the wrong things.
I once did some follow-up market research to
see how a microscope I had designed was being used. I was surprised
to see that it had been taken apart and altered to such an extent
that I could hardly recognize its original design. I wondered where
my design had gone. I realized for the first time that users might
sometimes use our products in such a way. |
