Definition of the form-based design approach and description of it using the FBS framework

The most of design methods and tools consider product functions as the basis to generate design solutions, but in the aesthetic and industrial design the situation is different. The sensorial experience during the interaction between users and products is the focus of the design process. It is composed by three elements: form, function and emotion; functions are only one of the elements. There is not a clear definition of this design approach, and no methods exist to describe its processes. The FBS framework allows describing design approaches based on user needs and functions, from which the technical requirements of the products are derived. It is not suitable as it is, but its flexible and generic structure makes it the candidate to become a descriptive method for the form-based design approach. The goal of this research is to define the form-based design approach and to describe it by exploiting the FBS framework. To achieve this, the form is introduced as a variable and the processes exploiting it are defined. Thanks to a comparison with the processes belonging to the FBS framework, this is modified and integrated to be able to describe the form-based design approach.