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Personal Use Unit 2 of the Product Design Category
is devoted mostly to sporting, leisure, and hobby products, but
also encompasses an extremely wide range of other genres, including
children's and infants' products, products and devices for care
of the disabled and elderly; clothing, beauty products, and personal
care items, and personal mobility devices. The word "diverse"
does not begin to describe a Unit that includes everything from
socks, thermal underwear, and golfing gloves to traditional Japanese
drums, other musical instruments, bicycles, motorcycles, and boats
for towing wakeboards.
It was impossible to screen these diverse products
according to the same evaluation criteria. We needed to set up separate
criteria for each product group based along the lines of G-Mark
screening criteria, such as "Is this a good design?" "Is
this a superior design?" and "Is this a design that opens
the way to the future?" The task that was assigned to the Screening
Committee was a huge one: gaining an understanding of not only the
functionality, safety, and appropriateness of pricing for each entry,
but also the environments and circumstances in which the entries
were supposed to be used, the characteristics and psychological
profiles of the users, and the technological trends within each
product group.
In addition, we could imagine many kinds of users
for the products entered in this Unit, including professionals and
semiprofessionals in the various fields, as well as highly-skilled
amateurs. Finding the intersection between the views of the core
users and our own views as professional designers was one of the
most difficult aspects of adjudicating this Unit, but at the same
time, it was what made this Unit so fascinating and enjoyable.
SUMMARY OF THE ADJUDICATION
This year, as last year, screening was carried
out in two stages: First Adjudication, conducted on the basis of
information about the entries submitted by the companies, and the
Second Adjudication, conducted with the actual products. In the
First Adjudication, the Screening Committee members read through
the detailed information individually and made proposals about which
entries would or would not pass that stage. The passing entries
were finally determined as a result of the Screening Committee members
putting their heads together and arguing the matter repeatedly.
The result was that in this Unit, it was decided that all entries
could pass on to the next stage. This is because these products
have sophisticated users, as previously mentioned, and it would
be inappropriate for us to judge the worth of a design without seeing
the degree to which the most desirable features were "built
into" the product.
For the Second Adjudication on August 29 and 30,
we had the actual products at hand as we conducted our screening
based on a combination of various criteria, including functionality,
ease of operation, depth of consideration for the user, appropriateness
of the choice of materials, ingenuity of the technology, the product's
degree of completeness, how advanced the design is, and plans for
marketing the product.
The products being screened included a large number of items that
the Screening Committee members had few opportunities to encounter
in their everyday lives. One example was the group of products related
to fishing. Many users in this field consider themselves to be professionals
or semiprofessionals. However, not one Screening Committee member
pursued sport fishing as a hobby. It may be argued that a person
who has never used a product cannot be expected to judge it correctly,
but precisely because fishing was not the hobby of any one of us,
we believe that we were able to judge the products in a detached
manner as design professionals. In fact, we are confident that we
were able to ask the right questions objectively about the elements
needed for manufacturing in the future: Assuming a sophisticated
user, to what extent was the designer able to take his or her ideas
and turn it into a notion of how the product should be? Were there
any problems with the way the manufacturer made it? What kinds of
joys, hopes, and dreams can be inferred from the product?
We think that the results of Adjudication in this
Unit will give you a feeling for what is meant by "irreplaceable
importance and preciousness" and "a purpose in life that
can be shared," as highlighted by this year's G-Mark.
GOOD DESIGN PRIZE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
REFERENCE
The adjudication process described above led
to the selection of two product lines from this Unit, the five products
in the Megabass Lure series, and the Snow Peak gasoline camp stove,
for the Prize Of Small And Medium Enterprises. They received high
marks from all the members of the Screening Committee for their
design concepts and the sureness of their basic design, and the
superb way in which the features intended to satisfy sophisticated
users were built into the product. It may be unnecessary to mention
this, but these manufacturers make a point of taking advantage of
the G-Mark system to prevent competitors from copying their designs.
We would be delighted to see even a few more manufacturers following
their lead in understanding the importance of design and the effectiveness
of the G-Mark.
THE GOLD PRIZE RECIPIENTS
At the Gold Prize Adjudication on September
20, the Yamaha TMAX Motor Scooter from Yamaha
Motors, a candidate from this Unit, was selected for the Gold Prize.
It is a large scooter developed for comfortable tandem running,
built with all the required functions for high-speed touring and
designed with consideration for conditions in the European touring
market. Its basic design follows the theory for designing sports
bikes, and it is the world's first scooter to feature a 500 cc2
cylinder horizontal engine, a front wheel load of 47%, and a banking
angle set at 50 degrees. Furthermore, its diamond-type frame guarantees
sturdiness. The TMAX combines the functionality
of a motorcycle and the convenience of a scooter. Its styling conveys
the emotion and excitement of riding, and it received high marks
for all these features, as well as for presenting a new concept
for two-wheeled vehicles, that of the high-speed sports commuter.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
We believe that all the products adjudicated
in this Unit occupy important positions in everyday life. Many of
the products seem to incorporate both a global sensibility and a
local sensibility at the same time. For that reason alone, we would
like designers in this field to move slowly but surely to begin
producing designs that show concern for both users and the environment.
Takeshi Toya
Chief Jury in Unit 2
Professor, Tokai University
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