Applications of Machine Learning to Form-giving in Industrial Design

Machine learning is a key technology to design and develop products, systems, and even services. In particular, image classification using deep learning has been successfully applied to many fields. Although industrial designers might learn this is an opportunity for their best practice, studies demonstrating how to integrate the technology into the design process are rare. Thus, we discussed the need to introduce ML to industrial design by presenting examples and ML tools with lower scientific thresholds such as Weka that is preferable for industrial design students and practitioners. A five-stage process of applying ML to product form-giving is presented to illustrate the bridging of ML to the design process. Further technical details and industry case studies are needed to demonstrate evidence of the advantages of ML in form-giving. The implication is not only in sharpening the tools of product form-giving but also in rethinking the theories of industrial design.