The designers and the functional creators of products need to understand and inform each other. Design should not be performed in a vacuum and engineering should not either. Rather, a close collaboration will result in the best products.
In the clothing industry, for example, the machines used to create the material may have certain limitations that can inform the design. A stitch that changes every so slightly may dramatically increase the production process while still fulfilling 99% of the creative needs of the designer. A team that works together to provide these knowledge transfers will provide that benefit to the company. A team that does not will fail.
This article on CIO.com does an excellent job making the case for this thinking:
http://www.cio.com/article/736359/What_Every_Programmer_Should_Know_About_Design
Here is a snippet from the article:
Good design ... is about making the right tradeoffs for your customer and understanding the customer well enough to make those tradeoffs.
I hope this one provokes some thinking from the engineers out there as well as the designers.
Happy reading,
J.W. Gant
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