**Part 1**

**Design and New Technologies** 

**1** 

*Portugal* 

**Technology as a Determinant** 

In a globalized world, we are confronted everywhere with the encouragement to consumption, the purchase of goods and services. This is something characteristic of the consumer society in which we live, whether it is caused by consumption needs and their satisfaction or because saturation has already set in, or it may even be caused by social

The intention of this chapter is to focus on the study of technology as a determinant of the shape of products that incorporate technology. The acceptance of a product by consumers, and how important the shape and look of it is to the success of the product, has been previously studied (Bloch 1995). Research has also been carried out to study the determinants of the shape of products (Crilly, Moultrie & Clarkson 2009), which shows that several aspects determine the final shape of a product. The form development process is driven by the designers' efforts to guide or constrain the way in which the product will be experienced, and the success of the final design may be determined by the degree of correspondence between designer intent and consumer response (Crilly, Moultrie & Clarkson 2009). This chapter does not intend to focus on all determinants of product shape and does not aspire to focus on the acceptance of a product on the market or to reflect on the role of the personal taste of the industrial designer in determining the shape of the product. The aim of this chapter is to study the influence of one aspect in particular, technology as a

The study of materials and their development also fits this line of inquiry, since there is a synergy between the development of technology and of materials. This historical relationship, while not the main focus of this work, is also of interest and merits some comments. The advent of new materials and the development and improvement of others makes it possible to improve the application of new technologies and the consequent development of new products. Man, machine, materials and production are closely linked in modern industry and this link is becoming increasingly strong. Advanced materials are critical to many new technological applications, since the latter depend strongly on the advances of the former (i.e. the high-speed train, Maglev, is based on technology already developed and tested but its large-scale implementation awaits improvements in materials technology so that cryogenic preservation can be maintained economically, so that it may be

possible to create the magnetic levitation and consequent propulsion of the vehicle).

determinant of the form of products, for products that embed technology.

**1. Introduction** 

statement (Baudrillard 1995).

Denis A. Coelho and Filipe A. A. Corda

 **of Object Shape** 

*Universidade da Beira Interior* 
