Towards the maturation of design: From smart to wise products

Abstract

Recent years have shown the introduction of several types of smart products. These products gather data about user behaviour and try to determine an optimal response, in order to make the user’s life easier. However, some smart products also lead to user behaviour that is undesirable. Hence, we would like to introduce a new design paradigm aiming for wise products that make the user’s life better. These products allow the user to be in control of his own life, they are empathic, and they know multiple ways to evoke desirable behaviour. Besides awareness of the user’s current situation, wise products are connected to a knowledge source that helps them decide on the appropriate behaviour, and they possess a repertoire of possible actions that may be customized to momentary demands. The aim is for wise products to contribute to the user’s and society’s subjective well being. We discuss several examples of how people experience wisdom in products and in the way they interact. In addition, we describe implications for the design process.Industrial DesignIndustrial Design Engineerin