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Design: Have It Your WayWhether they are selling cars, toys or fast food, companies are tapping consumers as never before to help them create new products.
When the Hummer H3 rolls out this spring, it will feature some distinctive touches from an unusual source of inspiration: a bunch of everyday drivers. General Motors, under pressure to create a midprice blockbuster sport utility with the look of a macho Hummer, relied on input from 481 people summoned to a building on an empty fairground in southern California in June 2001. Visitors were asked to critique six early renderings of the SUV. They came in five groups over three days. As they reacted to sketches of the exterior and interior, four GM designers listened from behind a curtain, scrawling changes on paper. "We wanted to see how much we could stretch our design," says Jon B. Albert, a design manager at GM.
Too much, according to the critics, who were selected because they already owned a Jeep Cherokee, a Chevrolet Blazer or the like and expressed interest in the Hummer. The front of the vehicle, they thought, looked too "cute" for a take-no-prisoners military truck. Some said its grille resembled a Jeep's-a red flag for GM, which was being sued by DaimlerChrysler for knocking off the Jeep's signature grille on the H2. The designers prepared revisions for each new group. "A process that n
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