Crowd participation in web-based collective design platforms: a study on quirky’s in-house industrial designers

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2014
Hajiamiri, Milad
Web-based collective design platforms are the newly emerging environments which globally support the contribution of vast number of individuals with diverse backgrounds. This study investigates the role of in-house industrial designers working for web-based collective design platforms in connection with the crowd participation in different phases of design process. The first study conducted focuses on the perceived values of web-based collective design platforms and covers semi-structured interviews with novice industrial designers in reference to two collective design platforms, Quirky and OpenIDEO. The study reveals six major values emphasized by designers: Supportiveness, collectiveness, appreciativeness, responsiveness, trustworthiness, and tangibility of outcome. The second study is based on semi-structured interviews with two former Quirky in-house industrial designers. The findings of this study reveal the roles and responsibilities of Quirky in-house industrial designers as curator and design manager, community manager, assessor, and liaison between design and engineering. The findings also characterize the online community as a research resource, supplementary assessor, idea developer and advisor. The inventors and experts within the online community are also identified as individuals who can promote the design process in different ways. Lastly, the results highlight the characteristics of Quirky as an open social product development company and an innovation-centered platform.

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Citation Formats
M. Hajiamiri, “Crowd participation in web-based collective design platforms: a study on quirky’s in-house industrial designers,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2014.