An exploration of how Uncertainty Avoidance influences product design, balancing the need for safety and the drive for innovation across cultures.

Dive into the world of human-centered design as seen through the development of an innovative medical device by Speck Design, blending technology with deep user empathy.

Join our industrial designer on their journey through the pivotal shift in product design towards the realm of intelligent products.

Discover how innovations like the Q Collar, RFID trackers, and 3D-printed structures are transforming Super Bowl LVIII and the future of sports with VR fan experiences.

Discover the transformative trends shaping product design in 2024, from AI-driven personalization to sustainability's rise across sectors.

Speck Design partners with GM on a revolutionary energy journey. Discover the drive behind GM's "zero, zero, zero" vision and our role in shaping the future.

Dive deep into the world of Individualism and Collectivism, exploring how these contrasting cultural dimensions shape product designs that either champion individuality or celebrate communal bonds.

In part two of our cultural influences on product design series, we explore the impact of power distance on product preferences within cultures.

Unlock the language of design with our comprehensive glossary, featuring 75 key terms you need to know for successful collaboration and innovation.

In part one of this series we explore the intricate dance of cultural nuances in physical product design and discover how Hofstede's dimensions can guide, but not dictate, our understanding of global design sensibilities.

Discover the pinnacle of design inspiration with our curated list of top industrial and product design websites.

Key business lessons from giants of the tech industry, focusing on the importance of continuous user research and more.

How UCD shapes Healthcare 4.0, bridging digital-physical gaps, meeting regulatory standards, and driving future innovations.

Dive into the transformative potential of Augmented Reality (AR) within industrial design.

One of the most exciting parts of designing for virtual reality innovations is the blue sky thinking it allows industrial designers to engage in, untethered from our typical real-world constraints.

To understand extended reality technologies writ large, it is first essential to understand that our physical world is not reality at all.

I am here to tell you: Generative AI is the next big thing. And it isn’t going to take jobs–it is going to make them better

Generative AI is on the tip of everyone's tongue. To understand where it will lead, knowing where it came from is helpful.

Industry 4.0 innovations are seeing a rise in application in healthcare. They are experiencing a surge of integration into healthcare in response to COVID created. Today they are part of most users' lives–whether they realize it or not and are the de-facto future of medicine, meaning so is UX design. 

As an inquisitive and forward-thinking product design agency, we often find ourselves perusing the online platform to discover creative works to admire and fall in love with.

The Pandemic significantly expedited the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies into Health 4.0. It saved lives but revealed a troubling truth that industry professionals have known for a long time: Healthcare is lagging in UX Design.

The future of machine learning (ML) in product design is exciting and has the potential to revolutionize several industries. Foremost among them is the field of medical devices, which offers seemingly endless opportunities for innovation and an overwhelmingly positive impact on quality of life.

We took time to reflect on our journals from 2022 with the coming new year. Our topics were far-ranging, from human-centered design to equality to sustainability and several subjects in between. The year in review highlighted the fact that the world is in an era of technological acceleration and we are thankful to have been a part of it.

Green gifts are holiday gold! They work to offset the heavy emissions of the holiday season, plus when you buy them, you support makers trying to make a difference.

The ability to tell stories has given our species the evolutionary advantages responsible for our proliferation to 8 billion people worldwide. Could design thinking be an evolved form of our narrative abilities that we are cultivating just in time to save us from ourselves?

We should care less about greenwashing, not because it's okay but because there is a more nefarious player lurking on the environmental scene. One that is all too conveniently shadowed by what boils down to poorly thought-out or deceptive PR practices.

Speck Design President Michael Sprauve outlines his thoughts on the potential implications of the recent speed charging breakthroughs within the electric vehicle industry.

Speck makes an untraditional but strong business case for product developers and brands to adopt circular design practices for profitability across numerous metrics.

As any product designer knows, the decisions you make throughout the development process have an incredible impact and far-reaching implications. Nothing could be a better example of this than planned obsolescence. However, it is still a widespread design practice, especially in technology, and it is in direct conflict with the concepts embodied in the circular economy.

In good times and bad, the things we use every day shape our lives and, increasingly, our well-being. This is why, post-Covid, it has become clear--a product designer's mind belongs to crisis. It is an opportunity for us to rethink why things work the way they do and why, at the drop of a hat, they don't. In turn, this reminds us the products we design are ephemeral, but the experiences we design are not.

Design for Manufacturing is a relatively new process that cuts costs, reduces risk, and shortens timelines. And, that's not even the best news! There are several other benefits from DFM that make it a smart process for any product development project looking to tip the scales towards success.

The user experience has changed because users have changed due to the pandemic, and as product designers, it is our job to design for this new reality.

When we, as people of color, celebrate Juneteenth, yes we celebrate the end of suffering and bondage our forefathers endured. But greater still, we rejoice as patriots of this great nation whose better ideals continually triumph over our darker angels. And for that, we are proud to call this imperfect country home.

Creating transformative products starts with a careful balance of rigorous quantitative user research and empathetic, qualitative user research. While quantitative can be quite obvious, qualitative is a practiced skill of profoundly understanding users' needs, insights, and emotions and knowing how to flush them out.

Medical device development is incredibly complex. The guidelines vary from market to market and device to device. This is why finding the right partner to develop and manufacture your medical device products is critical for success and will play a crucial role in how fast you get to market and the total cost of development.

Though disruptive and tragic, there was a major silver lining in the pandemic--the rise of the eco-consumer. This new cohort is bringing sustainability into the mainstream and is willing to spend more on environmentally ethical products that last.

An exhaustive collection of abbreviations, acronyms, regulations, and terms needed to successfully bring a medical device through development, past FDA approval, and ready for manufacturing.

Artificial intelligence is a transformative technology reshaping our daily interactions with machines, each other, and ourselves. It will soon be as pervasive as the internet, with a profound and unshakeable impact on society.

In our new series, ID Her: Women of Industrial Design, we profile past and present women in industrial design to inspire and guide future women in the industry, starting with Speck's own Dani Nguyen.

Although men and women start pursuing industrial design degrees evenly, only 19% of industrial designers are women. What causes nearly half of the female students to disappear within four years?

In Speck Design's third blog of our White Space: Black Designers Needed series, we look at the compelling reasons design industries (especially product and industrial) need to install more black designers in their ranks. Not surprisingly, it's not just for the warm and fuzzy feeling they get from doing the right thing. It's because diversity pays in dividends.

To find the root causes of MIA black designers, you just have to follow the money. From underfunded public schools--desegregated in name only--to privileged cultural institutions raking in the lion's share of arts donations, the systems are broken for some and working wonders for those who designed them.

It is no secret the design industry desperately needs more black people. In part one of our three-part blog series, Speck Design explores the disproportionately small number of African Americans in the various design verticals and the implications for human-centered design firms that fall short in representation.

COVID-19 rapidly accelerated telehealth adoption, and a full return to in-person care is unlikely. This shift creates opportunities for innovators and HCD designers to revolutionize empathy-based patient care.

Change is difficult, especially when unsolicited, but the pandemic has fostered resilience and innovation in the design industry.

Human-centered product design focuses on solving real problems for real people, driving sales and aiding marketing efforts.

The purpose of this blog is to save you time and money with our research. We broke down our findings into five main business categories, then four specific receiver sub-categories: BIPOC-owned, Women-Owned, LGBTQ-Owned, Sustainable, and American Made, then gifts for him, for her, for them (gender-neutral), and kids respectively. Most of these vendors sell more than one item, making them all worth a look regardless of who you are shopping for. What's best is they are all small, independent businesses selling their goods and their dreams too. If that doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies, we don't know what will.

Speck Design examines the use of color in industrial design and engineering through the lens of HCD, color theory, color psychology, and science.

In the final blog of our Sustainable Technology series, we focus on the importance of environmental empathy and what designers are actually preserving by developing it. Plus, we look at embracing constraints as a way forward towards more innovative, sustainable design outputs and hope for the future. 

In Part II of our Sustainable Technology series, we explore how systems interconnectivity drives negative consequences from innovations and how designers can shift their thinking to avoid them.

Product and technology innovation is a notoriously double-edged sword, often creating as many negative consequences as it does benefits. In our three-part blog series, we will explore how designers can use The Law of Unintended Consequences and The Gaia Theory as jumping-off points for Systems Thinking as a way to stave off possible perverse environmental consequences from the products they design.

The industrial design community is both passionate and precise, with many specific terms frequently used in the field. This glossary outlines over 50 of the most commonly used terms and their definitions.

Southpaw-Friendly Product Design Tips from a Lefty Engineer

As the power that designers, programmers, and engineers weld becomes more apparent in a lightning-paced world of AI, app, and algorithm development, it is hard not to notice design ethics lag woefully behind.

There are 4 critically important reasons for why you should choose to work with a design firm instead of going straight to the manufacturer with an idea, and making that choice could be the difference maker that results in success or failure for your product.

Crafting Successful Product Journeys: From Concept to Reality. Join Denise Pilsken as she guides you through the stages of realizing a product vision, highlighting the pivotal steps in bringing your idea to life and into the market.

Rehabilitated Baltimore felon mentored by Speck Design creates patent-pending idea for disposable, contamination-prevention barbershop tool while in prison.

With the rise of coronavirus, environmental cleaning and surface disinfecting has become more important than ever.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we want to share ways to support the cause, while shining light on more recent screening technology and treatment advances.

I recently attended South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin where the Artificial Intelligence (AI) conversation was in full tilt. At one end of the spectrum, companies are cautiously exploring AI. At the other end, there are companies that have jumped in with both feet. At FutureBrand Speck, our clients sit along the full continuum of the AI spectrum, sometimes from within different business units of the same company.

We refer to "brand" as an organization's personality and "product" as its physical manifestation, encompassing devices, services, and environments. Creating an emotional bond with the brand relies on connected touch points.

Design thinking is a human-centric, iterative process used to not only help designers not only understand their user, but also challenge assumptions and redefine problems.

This is the first in a series of articles designed to help entrepreneurs and early stage start-ups understand what it takes to take a product idea from initial concept to manufacturing.

Often entrepreneurs and start-ups will come to us with a potentially great idea. But a great idea is table stakes - it has as much to do with the success of a product as a seed has to the success of a plant.

Research shows that 3 out of 4 Millennials prefer to buy an experience over something desirable.

At its core, product design is about the users. As designers and engineers, we have tremendous power to influence them — and, therefore, great responsibility. Designing functional features into a product to improve users' lives is the easy part. What takes more rigor and investment is integrating emotions that (fingers-crossed) encourage people to be better human beings.

During this phase we establish the technical and design requirements. We will use the information you discovered about your user to help guide us to create a great user experience.

Speck Design is a proudly Black-owned business. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and all the victims of racism and police brutality.

We recently launched a research report (featured in Lodging Magazine) uncovering that Millennials (those currently 22-37) have a higher demand for enriching experiences over traditional hotel amenities.

Earlier this month the food and drug administration approved a high pressure ventilator prototype designed by NASA with the assistance of experts in a multitude of capabilities separated by mandatory distancing.