Adopting Improved Need-Analysis, Persuasion and Aesthetics for Alleviating Local Product Design Fiasco

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Adopting Improved Need-Analysis, Persuasion and Aesthetics for Alleviating Local Product Design Fiasco

Odji Ebenezer^1*, Oladumiye E. B.²

^1,2Department of Industrial Design, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria
*Corresponding Author

Abstract: – Nigerian engineers, researchers and industrial or product designers are not short of design outputs and creativity compared to their foreign counterparts, relative to resources and facilities available to them. However, while many of our researches and design outcomes never make it to the open market (as many of them are gathering dusts in engineering and design galleries and shelves), the few that eventually get introduced to the user or consumer in the market place often fair poorly relative to their foreign alternatives. Based on a survey of consumer opinions conducted, this study showed that the utility derived from local products and contents (which have foreign alternatives) is not so different from the utility derived from the foreign alternatives. This paper therefore, based on this result, discussed how improved persuasive drives, consumer need analysis, product persuasiveness and aesthetics may be adopted for the improvement of local Nigerian product designs and research outputs with emphasis on the local product development process.

Keywords: – Aesthetics, Need Analysis, Persuasion, Product development, Product design, Utility

I. INTRODUCTION

Like many other countries of the world, Nigeria is not lacking in the ingenuity, conceptualisation, research and production of new and innovative products. Local researchers, designers, engineers, agriculturists, scientists and manufacturers are not short of creative ideas that beget products and brand extensions that could be economically beneficial to national economic and technological growth. However, many of such products do not perform well in the market place. One major reason for this is the behaviour of consumers, product users and sponsors of design services and products who often prefer foreign alternatives to locally available products.

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