Industrial Design

Advice for product innovation, design, and development
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Biomimicry: What Would Nature Do?
What could biology possibly have to teach engineers and designers?
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Brands That Really Connect
Brands that push their products mostly via ad campaigns, websites, and packaging are missing an important opportunity: the point of connection.
2024 11 12 design thinking reduce stress healthcare HERO
Can Design Thinking Reduce Stress in Healthcare Environments?
The more it’s studied, the clearer it becomes that stress is the crucial, unseen factor in nearly any health-related situation.
2024 10 15 Sustainable Product Design HERO
A Sustainable Product Design Process: How To Start
We’ve compiled some essentials for product designers and companies who want to get started developing their own sustainable product design process.
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Co-Designing the Future of Healthcare: JeffSolves MedTech Pitch Night
Delve’s Philadelphia studio hosted an inspiring evening as part of the annual Design Philadelphia festival: the JeffSolves MedTech Pitch Night.
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Making a Complex Device (Feel) Simple
We’ve noticed a common thread running through all our work—research, strategy, mechanical and electrical engineering, industrial and interaction design—we make the complex simple.
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#sideproject: SmartiPi Raspberry Pi B+ and Camera Case
I’ve always wanted to make a product of my own — something small I could manage — and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. I decided to design a Raspberry Pi case that’s functional, affordable, quirky, and fun.
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What Can You Learn About Product Development from HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’?
Silicon Valley really speaks to us as interaction designers, user researchers, a mechanical engineers, and software engineers. There have been many times we wanted to jump into the screen and right the ship.
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The Happy Marriage of Industrial Design and User Interface Design
More and more, people are conditioned to interact with their objects. Products developed according to a siloed industrial design process have little chance of fulfilling these new expectations.
2024 08 13 Branding and Joy HERO
Branding and Joy (A Love Story)
Once upon a time, branding was good for companies but not so good for consumers. That’s no longer the story.
2024 07 10 Processes that Guide Creativity HERO
The Processes That Guide Creativity
Moments of inspiration aren’t unusual at all; practically any product innovation you can name has benefited from several. And if they seem to happen out of the blue, it’s because that genius was primed.
2024 07 02 Rational Guide to Brainstorming HERO
A Rational Guide To Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be very effective - if we don’t get lazy. At Delve, We subscribe to the notion of “more brain; less storm.”
2024 06 26 empathy essential HERO
Why Is Empathy Essential for Design?
The short answer: Empathic design makes us better designers.
2024 06 10 Designing for Home Healthcare HERO 3
Designing Home Healthcare: Ten Best Practices and Real-World Examples
The world is better when healthcare meets people where they are. As the home evolves into a central hub of healthcare, how can we design for it in a way that delivers safe and effective healthcare for all?
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Why is Brand Consistency Important in Product Design?
People often think of brand consistency as it relates to advertising and communications. But it’s just as important for designers of products to consider brand consistency when creating a new design.
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Diversity means better design
Diversity on a design team is important for many reasons.
2024 05 13 Decolonizing Design HERO
How Design Researchers Can Help Decolonize Design
Our role as human-centered researchers and designers is to advocate for a decolonized future of design in every decision-making task we take part in.
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Structured Ideation vs Brainstorming
Everyone has his own opinion regarding if and how brainstorming should be done. We use it frequently, but we’ve developed our own technique that is more structured than “stormed.”
2024 04 16 What Successful Hardware Innovators Do Differently HERO
What Successful Hardware Innovators Do Differently
Successful hardware innovators need confidence, foresight, and consideration to do something genuinely innovative.
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A Plan for Integrating Hardware and Software
To build better products, development teams need to integrate the hardware and software development processes. The design thinking mindset could provide the means to enable this reunification.
2024 03 01 LED touch interface HERO
Developing a Product with an LED and Touch User Interface
Sometimes the simplest designs are the most difficult to get right. Here's how we approach the design of a low-information-density user interface.
2024 03 13 AI Trust Usability2 HERO
AI in Medicine: Establishing Trust Through Usability
In many areas of healthcare where AI has great potential, use of the technology is still in its infancy. In these realms where it’s slower to catch on, a common obstacle to adoption is lack of trust.
2024 02 29 Unlocking Product Innovation HERO
The Simple Secret To Unlocking Product Innovation
Without the right insights, a new technology is just a solution without a problem. Insights are the answer to tech for tech's sake.
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The Plough Hypothesis and Design’s Gender Data Gap
What do ancient farm tools have to do with contemporary gender inequality? According to the Plough Hypothesis, there’s a direct link.
2024 02 08 B2 B v B2 C HERO
Is There a Difference Between B2B & B2C Product Development?
Designers love to talk about the needs of the user. But what if the end user isn’t the person making the decision to buy your products?
2024 01 24 Industrial Design Concepts Too Many HERO
How Many Industrial Design Concepts is Too Many?
A question we get often from new clients while drafting industrial design proposals is how many concepts they’ll be reviewing in the early phases of a project.
2024 01 24 Io T Changing Industrial Design HERO
How the Internet of Things is Changing Industrial Design
Several years ago, someone gifted me with Twine, an Internet-connected 2.5 square box that can be “programmed” in plain English, without needing to know how to code.
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On-Ramp to Design Engineering: Sealing
Figuring out just how much sealing products will need is part of the design process.
Extreme Environments HERO
Product Design for Extreme Environments
Here are some of the harshest environments you might come across as a product designer or engineer and the ruggedized solutions and products that stand up to them.
2023 11 22 consumer med device usability HERO
Consumer Medical Devices: 6 Design Practices for Usability
Medical device companies can boost usability by adopting these consumer product development practices.
2023 12 08 8 Essential Prototypes HERO
Eight Essential Prototypes: The Nesting and Stacking Approach to Product Development
While a final product may appear to stand on its own, it’s actually buoyed by tiers of development. These include rounds of prototyping and testing.
2024 03 27 Design that clicks HERO
Design That Clicks: The Art and Science of Tactile Feedback
A click is a universally recognized cue that an action is complete. Here's how to get the right sound and feel.
2023 12 VR product design
How We Do It: Virtual Reality for Better, Faster Prototyping
Today we have the ability to set up and interact with a VR-simulated prototype. As the technology continues to grow more accessible, can leverage it for product design, easily translating to faster turnaround and cheaper development costs.
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Calm Technology in the Era of Push Notifications
In a world of “ubiquitous computing,” how might technology communicate information without hijacking a person’s attention?
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On-Ramp to IoT: Anatomy of a Connected Product
Connecting a device to the Internet adds layers of complexity.
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What the Medical Device Industry Can Learn from Consumer Product Development Practices
Today’s users of medical devices expect a consumer-level experience. How can medtech firms make the shift?
2023 10 13 Making Wearables That Stick HERO
Making Wearables That Stick
A bottom-line approach drives meaningless products. Here are four guidelines for making meaningful wearable tech.
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Use Miller’s Law When Presenting Design Concepts
It’s not uncommon for a new client to want to see 20 or 30 concepts during the initial design phase, believing this represents better value.
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Using Digital-Physical Workflows to Master Integrated Product Design
Digital-physical workflows help us envision what needs to happen in the digital world and the physical world, as well as where the two need to work together.
2024 01 03 Hicks Law HERO
Use Hick’s Law to Design Intuitive Products That Users Love
Regardless of what you're designing, the options you present to users should be simple and straightforward.
2023 09 15 ballpoint pens HERO
Ingenious Engineering: Ballpoint Pens
The ballpoint pen eliminated the need for messy fountain pens and all the problems that came with them. This breakthrough invention forever changed the way we write.
2023 08 14 worst wearables HERO
Design Lessons from 4 Early Wearables That Didn’t Quite Hit the Mark
These early attempts at wearable technology were innovative but flawed—and paved the way for the more advanced devices we have today.
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How to Use High-Fidelity Prototyping for Soft Goods
You’ve vetted your MVP design through low and medium-fidelity prototypes. Now use high-fidelity prototypes to amplify your MVP into a truly compelling offering.
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What Taylor Swift Can Teach Product Designers About Experiential Brand Language
I just spent six months researching experiential brand language for a client. Here's what it is, how to create it, and examples of great EBLs from Apple, Airbnb, REI, and, as the title promises, Taylor Swift.
2023 05 22 soft goods prototyping HERO
How to Use Low- and Mid-Fidelity Prototyping for Soft Goods
It’s important to prototype and test soft materials at various stages in the product development process.
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Touchscreens Become Tactile
Touchscreens are now tactile. This may have big implications for medical devices and vehicle infotainment systems, where safety and error-reduction are paramount.
2023 05 15 Should you incorporate soft goods HERO
When to Use Soft Goods in Product Design
To develop the best version of your product, have you considered leveraging softer materials?
2023 04 11 multidisciplinary teams better product design HERO
Why Multidisciplinary Teams Design Better Products
A multidisciplinary team has the edge in creating innovative, well-rounded solutions that meet the needs of all stakeholders.
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19 Uses for AI in Product Development
The Delve team explores AI’s place in our product development process.
2023 03 13 7 ways design products women HERO
7 Ways to Design Better Products for Women
How do you design better products for women? Our female researchers, designers and engineers compiled seven principles for individuals and companies to consider.
2023 03 07 med device mri nest HERO
How to Design a Medical Device as Safe as an MRI and as Intuitive as a Nest
Medical device manufacturers need to design for a new kind of user. This has big implications not just for the devices they design but also for how they do business.
2023 03 03 medtech surprising HERO
3 Surprising Findings from Our Latest MedTech Industry Survey
While reviewing the early data from our ongoing research on trends in the medical device industry, three unexpected findings caught our eye.
2023 02 28 consumerization of healthcare HERO
How Consumerization is Transforming Medical Device Design
Empowered healthcare consumers bring to medical devices the high expectations formed from their experiences with highly intuitive consumer products—as well as greater risk.
Which product redesign HERO
If You Could Redesign Anything, What Would It Be?
Not every product design is a home run. Here are 15 products we think could use some design help.
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A Better Way to Develop a Medical Device with Digital and Physical Elements (Part 1 of 2)
Next-generation medical devices with hardware-software interactions need a new, holistic development methodology.
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Biggest Innovations in 2022 That Influenced Product Design
A coffee pod system without a plastic pod. Headphones that read your mind. A touch-sensitive prosthetic hand. Check out the biggest innovations to influence product design in 2022.
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3 Product Design Best Practices to Follow
How to create a successful product – whether you're designing a product that's physical, digital, or somewhere in between.
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2021's Top 10 Innovation and Product Design Posts
In 2021 you devoured blogs about looking at old problems in new ways, unlocking your professional potential, and creating products that change the world for the better.
2024 01 04 Four Steps to Right Color HERO
Four Steps to the “Right” Color in Product Design
40-90% of consumers base their buying decisions on color. Learn how to apply user-first design thinking to finding the right color in product design.
2023 09 21 4 ways future medtech wearables HERO
Four Ways to Win the Future of MedTech Wearables
Soaring demand for wearables has created a market saturated with the things—prompting an 18.1 percent year-over-year growth worldwide, according to Gartner.
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How to design for positive, humanity-scale impact
A simple open-sourced design had a massive social impact—40 million face shields were produced for front-line workers fast and without expensive tooling investments.
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How Digital Whiteboards Became an Essential Design Tool
More than just compensating for the loss of in-person collaboration, digital whiteboards provide clear benefits, namely reducing barriers between disciplines and fostering more open, dynamic relationships with clients.
2023 12 08 Staples hero
Ingenious Engineering: How Staples Are Made
It’s not easy keeping it together under pressure. Yet these little marvels do it every day tens of thousands of times over. Do you know how staples are made?
2023 10 24 jobs outcomes constraints HERO
Use ‘Jobs, Outcomes, and Constraints’ to Exploit the Pause Between Research and Ideation
The JOC method lets you move into ideation confident that you're working from something more than a hunch.
2024 05 24 DFM 7 things HERO
Design for Manufacturing: 7 Things Every Designer Should Know
When done well, DFM prevents quality issues and eliminates manufacturing waste. It de-risks new product development by preventing the costly scenario of learning about manufacturability issues when you’re about to launch.
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Affordable PPE for the developing world
The Badger Shield has shown that a distributed supply chain can create massive quantities of effective and cost-effective personal protective equipment (PPE) in a short time. Can this model translate to the developing world if COVID-19 cases start to rise in African, SE Asian and Latin American urban centers?
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Face shield designs to fill the gap
We are all feeling a little helpless in the face of COVID-19. We are looking for ways to help. Face shield shortages are putting health workers at risk.
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How you can help design succeed
Over the years, there have been designers still young in their careers that have come to me looking for advice and ideas of what to do next. They’ve all told me their tales of woe about how design is just not respected or understood where they work. And this, of course, coincides with their (and design’s) struggle to find a solid footing within the organization.
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CES 2020: Day two
Our team spent the second day of CES at Tech West, home base for health, wellness, home, wearable and fitness technology. It's also the hub for Eureka Park, where the scrappy startups vie for attention of venture capitalists and potential partners.
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Making something awesome
I’d like to take the time and opportunity to reflect on our experiences at the Madison Mini Maker Faire and talk about each of the wonderful projects our team at Delve has been able to put together to share with the public, while hopefully inspiring young minds to be open and grow.
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Cybertruck, schmeibertruck…
I, for one, am pretty excited that Elon Musk is bringing his 1980s sci-fi movie dreams to life.
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Will it recycle?
Have you ever considered what happens to the materials you put into the recycling bin after they are picked up from your curb?
2024 01 03 anthropomorphic HERO
How Anthropomorphic Form Shapes Product Design
Humans are drawn to anthropomorphic form in product design. Here's how industrial and interaction designers can use this as a tool.
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Star Trek's Visual Brand Language (and how we fit in)
When we spotted our Orbit point-of-sale scanner in photos from the set of the latest Star Trek movie, we were tickled. And then we got to wondering.
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How Does Product Design Enable the Circular Economy?
For the circular economy to work, we need system-wide innovation, and that will require rethinking and redefining our products and services.
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Goodbye Industrial, Hello Design
I’d prefer to never say words Industrial Designer again.
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Designing Military-Grade Products: The What, Why, and How
With the growing demand for rugged design across sectors, product developers need help figuring out when to accommodate military specifications.
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How to Use Mapping to Determine the Design of Your Controls
Good mapping makes products easier and more intuitive to use. Done well, it can create a powerful connection between a product and its users.
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What Does 'Hierarchy of Needs' Mean To Product Designers?
How can product designers apply Maslow's theory of human motivation to their work? A design won't succeed if it doesn't meet users' most basic needs.
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What’s a ‘Nudge’ in Product Design?
Nudge is a concept rooted in behavioral science that describes how minor changes in product design can markedly affect individual behavior.
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VR: From “Dactyl” to Practical
From a '90s novelty to an exciting design tool, virtual reality offers client-facing opportunities for design immersion.
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Is this on brand?
Is a bidet on brand? Our San Francisco team did some research and debating to find out.
2024 Work More Collaboratively with Interaction Designers HERO
Four Ways to Work More Collaboratively with Interaction Designers
Designing appliances increasingly involves and interaction design component. How do you integrate this skill into your development process effectively?
2023 12 27 Co Creation Blog Illustrations HERO
The Why, How, and When of Co-Creation During the Product Development Process
Co-creation means inviting users into your creative process. Users, instead of being subjects of study, gain agency and become active participants in the design process.
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Industrial Design’s Past, Present, and Future: The Evolution of a Profession
Delve's VP of Design Mathieu Turpault reflects on major changes in industrial design in the last 25 years and predicts where it's headed.
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Just one touch and I knew
A product that's beautiful to the eye but feels shoddy in the hand communicates volumes about a brand. Don't forget to design for touch.
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How to Leverage Aesthetic Design Trends in Product Design
When applied appropriately aesthetic design enhances the sophistication, functionality and overall value of a product. Try tuning into the following core aesthetic design trends to inspire your next creation.
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The Good Enough Design of the Nintendo Switch
The Switch has a lot of great features, but the modular design leads to some clunky compromises. Ultimately, does it matter?
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Your brand deserves a language
How do we know the difference between a designer handbag and a knockoff?
2024 04 26 moments that matter HERO1
Moments That Matter: How Interactions Foster Brand Loyalty
When we look back on an experience, we craft a narrative based on memory and emotion and the sum of our experiences. The same is true of how we process our experiences with brands.
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Favorite Things: Diptyque Philosykos Solid Perfume
Thoughtful multi-sensory design transforms the act of opening a perfume pouch into a sensuous expression of luxury.
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The End of Product Failure
What are the odds a new product will still be around in two years’ time? And, how do we decide what to design today?
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Suck up, tear down
An Electrolux from the '50s inspires a head-to-head comparison with a Dyson Animal. Let's just say there are some trade-offs.
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Designing Handheld Devices That Don’t Hurt
What's behind the lack of useful thumb-reach and hand-grip data for designers of handheld devices, and how can designers gather their own?
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Target practice
A lesson in visualizing the target and aiming in squash is also a good reminder of how to design products.
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Game on: The best of the boards
Great board games are designed to foster creativity, collaboration and compromise.
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Embracing the Old School
Sometimes we need to embrace our inner Janet Jackson and be the ones in control.
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Details, details, details
What's in a flange? Well, when it comes to product design, it's the attention to details that can make all the difference.
2024 05 02 ID from Mars Ix D from Venus HERO
IDers Are from Mars, IxDers Are from Venus
No need to pick sides. Become a hybrid designer instead.
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Why Designers Are Not Artists
Making a difference and calling attention to important issues through design is more achievable once designers get over the fact that they're not artists.
2024 01 04 Sustainability in Medical Devices HERO
Working Toward Sustainable Medical Device Design
Manufacturers that lead the way towards sustainable medical device design will gain significant business advantages over those that sit on the sidelines.
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What We’re Losing with the Loss of Patent Illustration
If your design requires a photorealistic image to show it is different from prior designs, it may not be innovative enough.
2024 11 07 design thinking small business HERO
Ideas on Design Thinking for Small Business
How about smaller companies who don’t have the budget for an innovation lab or the leeway to afford failed experiments? How can they get in on Design Thinking?
2024 08 08 Industrial Designers Design Your Future 1 3 HERO3
Industrial Designers, Design Your Future #3: Be Flexible
In my first two posts about the future of design I outlined a few ways product designers should set themselves up to thrive in their careers. In this last post I’ll step back for a broader view of some waves of change headed our way.
2024 08 08 Industrial Designers Design Your Future 1 3 HERO2b
Industrial Designers, Design Your Future #2: Be Nimble
As design and manufacturing become more commoditized, strategy to inform product experiences will be valued higher than implementation. This is good news for product designers who love digging into upfront work.
2024 08 08 Industrial Designers Design Your Future 1 3 HERO1
Industrial Designers, Design Your Future #1: Be Tactical
As the emphasis in industrial design (ID) continues to shift from form toward user interface (UI) and other elements of human to computer interaction, industrial designers will need to figure out how to thrive in a digital environment.
"Delve brings strengths that we don't have, which is why I'm looking forward to working with them again."

Vamsee Pamula, Founder & President, Baebies