The distinctive smell of a new car, the evocative sound of a particular motorcycle engine, the "feel" of one camera over another, the sleeked-down styling of a new computer: these characteristics have all spelled success for some products. Why? Can positive human responses be turned into replicable elements of product design? In Good Products, Bad Products (ME314), Professor David Beach and his students explore possible answers to these questions and more.

What makes consumers "crave" one manufacturer's product over another's?

This is a question that drives ME 314. "Courses in product quality normally deal with statistical, replicable characteristics-things that are clearly quantifiable and measurable, like performance and economy," says Beach. "Students in this course explore the less tangible factors: the complex relationships between consumer response and the senses, culture and even symbolism. It's one of the few, if not the only course of its kind."

Students are challenged to analyze how intangibles (i.e. cultural, emotional, sensory, and symbolic factors) may affect industrial product success and how they can be integrated into industrial product design to ensure success. "We assign open-ended projects," says Beach. "Teams are formed to focus on one of these topics, to look for products which differentiate themselves by one of these factors-by emotional impact, for instance. There are no clear-cut answers." Instead, students are challenged to approach projects from their own, unique frames of reference, to develop creative approaches to analyzing the non-quantifiable.

Diversity Offers Added Class Dimension

ME314 is offered through SCPD, via live broadcast and through videotapes. Students from remote locations have ample opportunities for interaction and feedback, according to Beach. "We have contact via telephone and e-mail, and, when I can, I visit remote sights."

In fact, Beach visited a group of distance students at a major automobile manufacturing plant in Detroit last winter. "I learned a great deal about automobile manufacturing from having this group in my class, and from visiting them on site. They brought unique experience and knowledge to the entire class." (It was on this trip that Beach learned about research groups devoted exclusively to developing a better "new car smell," because its consumer impact is so powerful.)

The diversity brought to the classroom through interactions among campus and distance students is an asset to the course, says Beach. "We have students from the Midwest, the Pacific Rim, the East Coast and other countries. Remote students tend to have a tremendous focus-there is nothing halfway in their work. They also have work experience and knowledge from their workplace that they bring to class-they add substantially to my experience and to the experience of the class."

More About Beach

Beach has been teaching at Stanford since 1974, and has specialized in courses that integrate design and manufacturing. He became a Bing Fellow in 1997 for his excellence in teaching. He also won the Walter J. Gores Awards for excellence in teaching, which honored him for "his dynamic vision in establishing the Product Realization Laboratory, an extraordinary learning environment where students are eager to learn, and where they are encouraged to transform ideas into reality." For more information, click http://www.stanford.edu/class/me314/