User-Centered Design of a Wall Clock

An analytical approach to the user-centered design of a wall clock utilizing an engineering model, a cost model, and a marketing model is demonstrated. An engineering model is used to optimize the design with respect to material use and functionality. A cost model considers fixed and variable costs for the producer. The marketing model utilizes preference data collected from a discrete choice conjoint analysis survey and analyzed with the logit model to represent user preferences quantitatively in the form of demand curves. The survey explores tradeoffs among four product characteristics (face diameter, frame width, font style, and font size) and price. The engineering, cost, and marketing models are integrated and the design is optimized to maximize profit by considering tradeoffs among design requirements, cost, price, and product characteristics. Cluster analysis defines three market segments within the survey preference data and solutions are optimized for each of the three market segments.