Glossary

27
"Aesthetics"

The term „aesthetics“ derives from the Greek aísthēsis meaning „perception“, „sensation“ and has been a doctrine of visible beauty until the 19th century. That doctrine mainly focused upon the laws and the harmony in nature and art. Colloquially, aesthetics is nowadays mostly as a synonym for „nice“, „tasteful“ or „attractive“. In science „aesthetics“ means the amount of attributes, which decide how people perceive objects.


"Branding"

Synonym for „Marke“ in German. Branding derives from the English „make a branding“ and indicates the transfer from brand to product. The use of „Branding“ in design is mostly graphic logo placement on products in comparison with the specific company CI guidelines. Moreover branding is establishment and further brand evolution.


"Capital goods + Design"

In science of economics capital goods are durable and economically efficient goods, which are acquired by companies to create and process further goods. They are recognized as fixed assets. The design and development of capital goods is about strengthening, optimization and emotionalizing of production units and other production accessories such as testing equipment and tools.


"Design"

Design is the ability, to combine function and aesthetic.


"Design agency"

Design agencies act as service operators, which are specialized on Corporate Design, branding, package design, product design (shape/structure/function) or user interface design development. During the development process design agencies cooperate with the internal departments of their clients.


"Design awards"

Published competitions assess the quality of design from submitted products. A Jury of experts have a look at the products and award the special ones. The award can be used in form of logos for marketing purposes of product marketing. Nowadays design awards are mostly linked to costs.


"Design Center"

Design Center Stuttgart is the only State-owned design center in all of Germany. Located in „Haus der Wirtschaft“ in the middle of Stuttgart, it‘s the most important part of economic development support in Baden-Württemberg. It provides information and advice about professional design. As part of the promotion of trade and industry, it especially offers small and medium-sized enterprises guidance on current design topics. The Design Center Stuttgart offers companies and creative service providers the ideal platform for making contacts and networking. The cooperation with federations, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Center of Innovations and comparable institutions often plays an important role.


"Design concept"

An important step in the development process in which product visions are created, logical shapes and functional concepts are made and through design the product emotions are generated. Clear, unique and future-oriented structures, which connect the shape, the material and the function, give the product its future and individual character. Those innovative design concepts are worked out in detail, verified with previous variants, clearly structured and afterwards entirely developed in close dialogue with the client.


"Design development"

Shaping an emotional and individual product with brand specific but unique identities is one of the core missions of successful design developments. The products of our clients have a clear design idiom and a high factor of recognition.


"Design-to-Cost"

A special focus of the defortec service is designing concepts for the economic implementation of new products. This special item design-to-cost represents intelligent design, which enables reduced production costs and therefore quick viability of development costs.


"DMDK"

The German Congress of Brand- and Design is an important international congress in the design industry and is organized by the German Design Council.


"Engineering"

Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. The discipline of engineering is extremely broad, and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied science, technology and types of application.


"Ergonomics"

Human factors and ergonomics (HF&E) aka comfort design, functional design, and user-friendly systems, is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, biomechanics, mechanobiology, industrial design, physiology and anthropometry. In essence it is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body and its cognitive abilities. The two terms "human factors" and "ergonomics" are essentially synonymous.
Human factors and ergonomics is concerned with the "fit" between the user, equipment and their environments. It takes account of the user's capabilities and limitations in seeking to ensure that tasks, functions, information and the environment suit each user.


"Focus Open"

International design award Baden-Württemberg, which is yearly organized by the Designcenter Stuttgart. It‘s subsidized by the government and therefore not focused on commercial aspects. In effect it is an opportunity for very small companies to participate. The award „Focus Gold“, „Focus Silver“ and „Focus Special Mention“ has strong influence on the strength of the brand, on the market as well as among the awarded companies and agencies.


"German Design Council"

The German Design Council is part of the leading international centers of expertise in design. As a provider of services for the economy its offering a unique plattform for the transfer of brand and design competence knowledge across the different sectors. The German Design Council celebrated its 60th birthday in 2013. Its foundation is based on a resolution of the lower german house of parlament, which demanded an establishment of a body that secures competitiveness and best quality of german products.


"Graphical user interface (GUI)"

In computing, a graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces which require commands to be typed on the keyboard.

The actions in a GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements. As well as computers, GUIs can be found in hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players, gaming devices and smaller household, office and industry equipment. 


"Human-machine interface (HMI)"

The abbreviation „Human Machine Interface“ can be translated into German with „Benutzerschnittstelle“ and can be also called „Man-Machine-Interface“ (MMI). The HMI allows the user to operate a machine, to define process parameters and to observe machine conditions and processes. Modern HIM systems run on software, which enable an intuitive interaction. Also check „User interface“.


"iF product design award"

An important international design award, which is organized once a year by the iF International Forum Design GmbH. Since the first time 1954 the award has expanded into a series of six awards with different disciplines. So there are further awards beside the classical iF product design award, the iF communication design award, iF design award China, iF material award, iF brand award and the iF concept award. In the year 2002 almost 5000 submitted their work in the category communication-, industrial- and product design.


"Industrial design"

Industrial design or product design is focused on concepts for industrially produced products. It‘s mainly divided into two sections: a) the designing of consumption goods and b) the designing of capital goods. Consumption goods are furniture, sanitary products, and electronic products, while capital goods involve design development from product plants and medicine and laboratory equipment. It‘s concentrated on products for professional users. On these projects the designer works often in interdisciplinary teams. Its responsibilities are structure studies, brand development, optimization of the function while taking into account the needs of the target group. A designer is an creator for series-produced products and not an artist who is creating a single item.


"Machine design"

Machine design is concerned with the design of production facilities. Its duties include the form-finding, the brand development and optimization of function under special consideration of the needs of a target group.

Durable economic goods that are purchased by companies for creating and editing of goods and bookkeeping allocated to fixed assets are illuminated and developed under a design view. This includes the upgrading, optimization and emotional appeal of production and other production tools such as test equipment and tools.


"Red Dot Design Award"

The Red Dot Design Award is an international design competition, announced by the Design Center Nordrhein-Westfalen, since 1954. The accolade, the “Red Dot”, is an internationally recognised quality label for excellent design. The best products are highlighted with the Red Dot: Best of the Best.


"Unique selling proposition (USP)"

The unique selling point is an outstanding performance feature, which sets a product or service apart from its competitors, in design, marketing and selling psychology. These characteristics can be shaped functionally and/or creatively. In a successful design and development process can thereby grow veritable advantages for the customer and the corporate value. The unique selling point should be „strong in defense“, target-group oriented and economically, but also realizable in price, time and quality. A unique selling point is an individual benefit and creates in addition with other factors the brand promise.


"User experience (UX)"

Sum of all perceptions while using a product, a controller, or environment. The user experience defines all aspects of a users experience while interacting with a product or a software.


"User guidance"

A system with many different types of indication in shape, color and graphic to simplify the operation steps of a product. Intelligent user guidance is based on knowledge of perception psychology, user inspection, those results and outcomes. Good user guidance improves user comfort and security in product handling.


"User interface design"

Design and functional development of a user interface. Interface is a part or an act, in which a person makes contact with a machine or a product. The simplest example therefore is a light-switch: it‘s not part of the person, neither part of the machine (light), but an interface between. For being useful and important for persons, the interface should be based on human needs and skills. If you look at it systematically user interface belongs to the „Man Machine System“ (MMS): Man  ↔ Man-Machine-Interface ↔ Machine. Different sciences are focused on that theme, e.g. informatics, the Cognitive Science research and psychology. The basic knowledge for user-friendly interface design is developed in design and ergonomics. The specific field of activity is Cognitive Ergonomics, System Ergonomics and Software Ergonomics (usability engineering).


"VDID"

The Association of German Industrial Designers is the biggest professional association of industrial designers and acts as a link between industry and design, also between politics and society.


"zwomp"

Zwomp is an online magazine for industrial design topics. In addition www.zwomp.de is publishing design news and especially projects from young designers. With its clear focus on industrial design zwomp.de is an outstanding media in the german speaking area.