Dyson has won several awards worldwide for innovation and design. James Dyson himself has earned about a dozen honorary doctorates for his products’ design, his way of doing business and his inventions overall. Dyson, a Royal College of Art graduate, started the company with his name because of his aggravation with vacuum cleaners’ many technological design flaws.

Dyson is one of those rare designers who are changing the ways of an entire industry --the Dyson Cyclone vacuum cleaner is now being copied by a number of vacuum cleaner manufacturers.

Owning a Dyson vacuum cleaner myself, I was particularly interested in how Dyson designs his products. What I learnt was rather surprising. It turns out Dyson’s design successes depend far less on digital tools than one would imagine by looking at the innovations throughout the Dyson product range. 

Not once in this interview did Dyson refer to a Mac or a PC as a basic design tool. In fact, as you will read further down, much of the process is done the old way: pencil sketches on good old-fashioned paper. Less is more, and Dyson seems to prove it.

IT-Enquirer: What drives innovation at Dyson? Is it Mr. Dyson’s own “inspiration” or has it become engineers’ teamwork?

James Dyson: The term ‘innovation’ can be rather vague.  There is a preconceived idea that there is a ‘Eureka’ moment or a flash of brilliance before any innovative idea.  This has never been the case with me --it took years of endless experimentation and many mistakes before I found a solution to the problem of clogging vacuum cleaners.  I encourage our engineers to take the same iterative, Edisonian approach.  In fact, most of the 350 Dyson engineers are graduates --open-minded and untarnished by rules.  This makes it easier for them to take risks and learn from mistakes --a key part of any innovation formula.
 
IT-Enquirer: With some products other than Dyson, I can myself think of improvements. With a Dyson vacuum cleaner, I can’t, and I was surprised to find a design like the telescope hose --it’s a “why didn’t I think of that” feeling. How do you explain that?

James Dyson: There are always solutions to problems or ideas which simply make our lives easier.  Frustration is not uncommon.  But most people tolerate product failings rather than taking the time to think about how it can be improved, others seem to have an innate critical eye. 

The DCO8 Telescope machine is a good example of how the engineers resolved to improve frustrating aspects of a vacuum cleaner.  Traditionally, cylinder vacuum cleaners have come with bulky wands and unwieldy hoses, which get in the way and take up too much space.  With Dyson’s telescopic wand and wrap around hose it solves all these problems.  At Dyson, the form of a product always derives from its function rather than just empty styling. 
 
IT-Enquirer: How many hours or days go into designing such a “detail”? How many sketches do you throw away?

James Dyson: The potential of a good idea can take years to translate --it requires a rigorous and scientific approach.  You need to look at the detail.  Although this is often very time consuming it is an essential part of any design process.  For example, the telescopic wand has a self-actuating catch making it much easier to use.  Imagine a camera tripod --not a particularly easy equipment to assemble or pack away.  The process is somewhat stuttered, not to mention lengthy --each leg needs to be collapsed and fixed, collapsed and fixed, collapsed and fixed.  Very frustrating.  So, we fixed the problem.  The self-actuating catch on our vacuum cleaner wand only requires two movements --press and extend. 
 
The DCO8 Telescope machine took around 2 years to develop (it often takes much longer!) The journey involved numerous prototypes, sketches and learned mistakes.  Each sketch is as important as the first, without them, you would never get to the finished machine.  

 
IT-Enquirer: I assume the design process is digital/digitized? Which systems are used to draw the design (sketch phase) ? Which are used for CAD?

James Dyson: Many people would consider Dyson’s design process rather crude; the tools are very basic in the early stages.  The engineers are encouraged to sketch out their ideas and use card and glue to build models. Of course, we also use computerised systems, such as CAD but this is in conjunction with the hand work.  The viability of a design is often more revealing from a simple cardboard rig than from a flashy CAD drawing.