How do you evaluate the success of your car designs?

1 Goals and objectives

Before you start designing a car, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. What are the goals and objectives of your design project? Who are your target customers and what are their needs and preferences? What are the technical and budgetary constraints and opportunities? By defining your goals and objectives, you can set the direction and scope of your design process and establish the benchmarks for evaluating your outcomes.

2 Design principles and standards

Another way to evaluate your car designs is to apply some design principles and standards that are widely accepted and recognized in the automotive industry. For example, you can use the principles of aesthetics, ergonomics, usability, safety, and sustainability to assess how well your designs meet the expectations and requirements of the users, the regulators, and the stakeholders. You can also use some industry standards and guidelines, such as the Automotive Design Reference (ADR), to ensure that your designs comply with the best practices and norms of the field.

3 Feedback and testing

A crucial part of evaluating your car designs is to get feedback and testing from various sources and perspectives. You can use different methods and tools, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, prototypes, simulations, and user testing, to collect and analyze data and opinions from your potential customers, your peers, your managers, and your experts. By doing so, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your designs, as well as the opportunities and threats for improvement and innovation.

4 Performance and impact

Another important aspect of evaluating your car designs is to measure their performance and impact in the real world. You can use different indicators and metrics, such as sales, market share, customer satisfaction, brand recognition, profitability, environmental footprint, and social responsibility, to quantify and qualify the results and outcomes of your designs. By doing so, you can evaluate how well your designs achieve your goals and objectives, as well as how they contribute to the success and value of your organization and your industry.

5 Trends and history

Finally, you can evaluate your car designs by comparing them with the trends and history of automotive design. You can use different sources and references, such as books, magazines, websites, museums, and exhibitions, to learn and appreciate the evolution and diversity of car design over time and across cultures. By doing so, you can position your designs in the context of the past, present, and future of automotive design, as well as discover new inspirations and challenges for your work.

6 Reflection and learning

Evaluating your car designs is not only a way to measure your performance and impact, but also a way to enhance your reflection and learning. By evaluating your car designs, you can gain insights and feedback that can help you improve your skills, knowledge, and creativity as an automotive designer. You can also use your evaluation results to set new goals and objectives, to explore new design principles and standards, to seek new feedback and testing, to optimize your performance and impact, and to follow new trends and history in automotive design.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?