Redesign the main leafblower design used by Poulan, Poulan Pro, WeedEater, and Craftsmen to be best in class and to eliminate a number of poor user experience issues.
For starters, the product development team purchased competitive leaf blower units and evaluated them in real life scenarios, rating them on weight, performance, noise, comfort, and ease of use. Then, we organized consumer testing to see how easily people understood and used the products. During this process, we identified that end users were having trouble starting the unit, attaching the blower tube, and shutting off the blower. With this research complete, we started work on styling concepts and ergonomics, including several rounds of sketched concepts while using information from competitive bench testing to dial in handle profiles and location for best center of gravity. Bullseye also worked with engineering prototypes to adjust ergonomics for best balance while the blower was in use, and also made use of a blow tube design that was centered on the handle to make the blower easier to move from side to side with less wrist fatigue. The air intake vent design was modified to limit the amount of air intake restriction to improve blowing performance. The location of the gas cap also was moved, and raised higher to reduce the amount of gas spilled while filling the blower. Starting controls were redesigned with improved marking of starting controls and explanation of the proper procedure to help users start the blower.
With diligence from both the industrial design staff and the engineering department, the new leaf blower delivered on all fronts. Weight was minimized, performance was improved, noise was lower than most competitors’, the blower was comfortable to use both from the handle design and the balance of the machine in the hand. Starting the blower was made easier than many competitors with clearly marked controls. And best of all, the target retail price was met.
Competitive product testing is worth its weight in gold, and is critically important to deploy, especially in commodity product markets where a small improvement over other products can improve sales. In evaluating competitive products, product designers can quickly learn what features & functions are truly important to users…and those which are not. New issues that we were not aware of also surfaced, and the product development team addressed and resolved product issues that were not known at the beginning of the new product development process. It is far better to make all of your discoveries in product performance and usability before your money has been spent developing production tooling.