Shape borrowing is the technique of using shapes to design products which look good. By using shape borrowing the product would look more attractive and thus more people would buy the product. First you have to choose a shape, preferably a unique and unusual one. Look at the shape from different angles and see how you can apply it to a product to make it look better. Some examples may be using a hexagon to make a sharpener or a parallelogram to make a pencil holder.
SCAMPER is a series of steps used to improve a certain product. SCAMPER stands for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Minimize/Magnify, Put-to-other-use, Eliminate, Reverse/Re-arrange. Using these steps we can improve the functions and appearance of designs.
1.
Substitute: To substitue a parts of a product is to replace them with other parts. For example we can replace a square base with a circular one. By substituting we are making the product's design better.
2.
Combine: The means of combing are to take the functions of two products to create one. For example I can add a pencil holder on a lamp. By combining we are allowing the product to have more functions.
3.
Adapt: Adapt would be to help the product to adapt to current times. To make the object look more cool or fit for the target age group would be to adapt. To make an object lighter or easier to use would also be to adapt as in current times most people prefer lighter products.
4.
Modify: To modify is to change/add things to a product. For example we could change the shape of a product to make it look more attractive, also if we add wheels to a pencil holder we could make it portable. Modifying can increase the usefulness and the attractiveness of a product.
5.
Magnify/Minimize: By magnifying we are working on a certain part of a product. For example if we are creating a new pencil holder, we can choose to magnify the amount of pencils it can hold. As for minimizing, it helps us to minimize the needs of other functions, giving us more space for magnifying.
6.
Put-to-other-use: By putting products to other use we are creating an external function for the product. Like how sometimes we use a pencil as an object for self-defense. That is putting the pencil into another use. Also we can
modify parts of the product to allow it to be put to other use. Examples would be instead of being able to hold 1 pencil the pencil holder can now hold 2 pencils.
7.
Eliminate: Eliminating would be to take out portions of the design, this is to make the product focus on only a certain function. Eliminating is also used to take out not-needed parts of a product to make it less complex and more simple.
8.
Reverse/Re-arrange: Reversing or re-arranging is to shift about parts of the design to make it look more attractive. We can reverse where the pencil is placed on a pencil holder or re-arrange a speaker such that sound comes out from the side and not the front.
This was all typed out based on my pure knowledge, I did not copy and paste so please do not accuse me of that. My source would be:
http://open-your-eyes-dnt.blogspot.com/2008/08/scamper.html I used the link to remind me and give me examples of SCAMPER
