Identifying Styles in Product Design

44 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2013

See all articles by Tian Heong Chan

Tian Heong Chan

Emory University - Goizueta Business School

Jurgen Mihm

INSEAD

Manuel Sosa

INSEAD

Date Written: January 25, 2013

Abstract

This paper introduces an approach to identify styles in product designs. We first built a theoretical foundation on what a style is and how designs are configured into styles. On this basis we executed a graph-clustering algorithm to identify styles in a population of design patents filed in the USA between the years 1976 to 2010. The design patent is uniquely suitable for this task because it is purely focused on how designs look. We validated the outcome obtained from the algorithm using experiments, which suggests that the algorithm outcome is no different from how humans would configure designs into styles. By establishing styles in designs, we open up a new avenue towards design research, upon which the dynamics of styles can now be studied.

Keywords: design, styles, Clustering Analysis, experiments

Suggested Citation

Chan, Tian Heong and Mihm, Jurgen and Sosa, Manuel, Identifying Styles in Product Design (January 25, 2013). INSEAD Working Paper No. 2013/24/TOM, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2206797 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2206797

Tian Heong Chan

Emory University - Goizueta Business School ( email )

1300 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30322-2722
United States

Jurgen Mihm

INSEAD ( email )

Boulevard de Constance
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
France

Manuel Sosa (Contact Author)

INSEAD ( email )

Boulevard de Constance
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
France

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