PRODUCT DESIGN CONCEPT EVALUATION BY USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY AND ANALYTICAL NETWORK PROCESSES

Abstract

The aim of this study is to improve the success and efficiency of the design concept evaluation and selection activity in industrial design by adapting two specialized evaluation-selection methods to the design process and comparatively demonstrating their use. The methods are called the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). In their application, first the main design objective is decided upon and the evaluation criteria are determined accordingly, followed by the listing of the design concept alternatives. Then the criteria's importance values as well as relations between them are investigated and evaluation of the alternatives is done according to the criteria by using the tools provided by the methods. The application presented in the article evaluates seven hand cart designs by using the two methods. First the tasks that are common in both methods, then the tasks specific to each method are explained. The general criteria to be used in the evaluation are identified and the effects of these criteria on the evaluation process are determined through interviews with designers and users participating in the study. Then the relative performance rankings of the available seven hand cart alternatives are calculated by using both methods. Numerical results are listed in a descending order to show the success levels of the design concepts, pointing to the one that received the highest overall performance. The findings obtained from two methods are comparatively interpreted.