Product Design Centre Discovery

At DesignSpark we believe that the more user input we gather the better the whole experience will be for our members and visitors. We have conducted many 1:1 usability tests where we ask users to perform tasks, ask what they expect to happen if they were to click on different pages, is the information laid out as they would expect, is there anything missing, what can we improve. We also send out 3-4 user surveys each years to help us undertand our users and their requirements in more detail.

One of the most recent developments we have looked at is how we can make a product page work better for engineers as they are designing. We spent a lot of time talking to engineers about the design process they go through, where they currently get information about products and what information they require from first identifying a product to including it in their designs. Also, what would make this a much easier if we could build something for them.

On the back of all this investigation we have been working on a new product page that is much more than just a datasheet repository or somewhere that is only trying to sell a product. So much so that we have given this area a new name "Product Design Centre" which we are launching on 8th March 2021.

The page is structured as Engineers told us they wanted to see the data with the image, descritptive title and the products attributes to enable you to determine if the product is correct,

Then having datasheets and other technical references that can be downloaded quickly and easily. This will help engineers who want to store the data assets or possibly investigate if there is a product almost identical but with a small difference.

Engineers told us they wanted the ability to have a Design Library where they can view and then bring the models, 3D or footprint and schematic in to their prefered Design Software. Of course we would love you to use our Free DesignSpark design software but we recognise that there engineers have preferences so we have provided these in all the key formats. The model viewer lets engineers compare models from different sources all on one page.

This is only the beginning of our development for this page, currently there are over 500,000 RS products loaded but we are going to be adding many more products inclulding products not stocked by RS. We are working on other information that will benefit engineers whilst they are designing and we are looking at the best ways to find these products.

If you would like to be involved in our user testing, please register here