Examining Design in the Age of Experience

The 3DEXPERIENCE icon is Dassault Systèmes’ guide to the company’s platforms and philosophy, covering the full design experience for engineers and customers.

Starbucks gets it. So does Domino’s Pizza (introduced last week to Milan, Italy). And Dassault Systèmes’ does as well.  Starbucks customers pay upwards of $5 a drink, but they get much more than coffee. Domino’s Pizza prides itself on delivery, therefore bringing an unaccustomed service to Italian pizza-lovers. And Dassault Systèmes has a vision for design — 3DEXPERIENCE — that goes far beyond the tools for creating a physical product, creating a broad vision for the future. These companies understand that today’s consumer, whether looking for coffee or pizza, a new car or an environmentally responsible home, want more than an item in hand. It’s all about the experience, in-person and socially connected.

On April 11, in celebration with Milan Design Week, Dassault Systèmes launched its global user conference under the theme, “Design in the Age of Experience.” Philippe Laufer, Dassault Systèmes CATIA CEO and Gian Paolo Bassi, Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS CEO, came right to the point. “Your customers don’t want a product — they want an experience,” said Bassi. This message was immediately highlighted with immersive videos based on multiple “what if” themes — examples of harvesting wind-energy from high in the sky, building self-enlarging skyscrapers, enabling underwater cities and packaging foods in edible containers. The concepts not only demonstrated engineering excellence but also felt part of a bigger picture. Bassi explained that to get to these endpoints, “There needs to be an emotional connection between the product and the user, and so we deliver the authentic experience for designers.”

Laufer noted that megatrends such as climate change, scarcity of resources, a global economy and social/collaborative connectivity are transforming the way we live and opening opportunities for business leaders.  “This is exactly our mission at Dassault Systèmes,” says Laufer, “harmonizing product, nature and life. So with the 3DEXPERIENCE, we give you the solutions to address those mega-trends, creating a deep vision of the future.”

He went on to say that within these trends, they have identified four themes: design, science, manufacturing and marketing. “By interacting with you, like this, on these themes,” he adds, “we believe we can have a true impact and drive innovation.”

Philippe Laufer (L), Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA CEO with Gian Paolo Bassi, Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS CEO. Image courtesy Dassault Systèmes.

Bassi took his turn to explain: “This event in particular is dedicated to the design megatrend.” (Editor’s Note: from May 23-25, 2016, Dassault Systèmes is hosting a Science in the Age of Experience Conference in Boston, focused primarily on simulation.) “Design is at the intersection of many disciplines,” said Bassi, “but it is basically the discipline that makes the invisible, visible. It is a way of thinking that transforms imagination into real products, and sometimes those products touch the lives of the people who use them. When this happens, there is a magical connection, an emotional connection, between the user and their problem.” The result, he noted, is that today, users don’t want to buy functionalities — they want to buy experiences. His advice: Wake up to Design in the Age of Experience.

Breaking Down Silos

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE portfolio comprises Product Innovation Platforms that help users produce such experiences for their customers. The conference featured 80 sessions involving six of the 11 corporate brands that are particularly focused on enhancing design: CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, SIMULIA, ENOVIA, 3DEXCITE and EXALEAD.

Keynote speaker John Maeda, partner at Keiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, and former president at the Rhode Island School of Design, talked about the changes to art and engineering at the Design in the Age of Experience Forum in Milan. Image courtesy of Dassault Systèmes.

These platforms use cloud, mobile, social and Big Data technologies to break down traditional silos for knowledge, workflow and data to enable collaboration among diverse disciplines. Keynote speaker John Maeda, partner at Keiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, and former president at the Rhode Island School of Design, talked about the transitions in his own work that have changed the ways he views the disciplines of art and engineering.

“Ten years, technology (such as for making calls on a cell phone) was enough,” Maeda says. “Now, people check their mobile phones a hundred times a day. The experience has to be good; it’s about finding simplicity.” He added that engineers make solutions while art asks questions, and that new tools, such as those found in the 3DEXPERIENCE platforms, close the gap between design and art.

Dassault Systèmes launched its first Design in the Age of Experience global users’ conference on April 11 at the Milano Congressi hall in Milan, Italy. More than 400 people attended the two-day presentation.

Other speakers who talked about connecting the dots between fiction and function included Anne Asensio, vice president for Creative Design at Dassault Systèmes, who explained that today’s design solutions must not only address current issues but also the future. She gave the example of how car companies must look more broadly at the future of mobility and the many ways that could be provided. Traditional engineering tasks — model, create, sketch, test and share — must be performed in the context of the human emotions that they evoke, and support the force of social collaboration.

Guest speakers then gave fascinating summaries called Tales of Transformation as they described an extensive variety of projects they are tackling with Dassault Systèmes software products. From Arthur Léopold-Léger, CEO of Elixir Aircraft, talking about designing a flying experience, to Jess Hahne, president and lead designer at the Center for Advanced Design describing how new prosthetics have helped more than 700 injured athletes get back to the sports they love, they showed how 3DEXPERIENCE transformed their products.

More Info

• Dassault Systèmes
• ”Building a Case for Dassault’s Virtual Twin”
• Making the Case for Simulation in the Age of Experience