Assessment of Design Values in Designing Product Standards: A Design Study on a Sport PPE

Abstract

Participation in sports requires using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to preserve athletes’ well-being. Although equipment may negatively impact performance, governing bodies often impose standards on participants subject to their jurisdiction. Although the vast majority of new products are incremental innovations, radical innovation still attracts design researchers' and professionals' attention. The design of complex systems needs the expertise of various kinds: designers are fundamental in conceiving innovations in response to developing ways of product use and customer needs, despite they must face product standards, which often act against product innovation. Despite product innovations benefiting consumers in many markets, they do not necessarily benefit consumers in sports PPE markets. In this paper, the author reflects on an ethnographic case study and the importance of the involvement of end and co-dependent users in the design of sports PPE. For this study, the design of the Australian safety vests for jockeys, frequently overlooked, was examined for incremental innovation and its relationship with its standards. This was inspiring to consider an assessment of design values in designing product standards in the sports field. As co-design is increasingly applied across multiple sectors, there is a huge need for practical design guides to support product development and co-designing with users. Further research in this field is highly recommended.