Published Paper Details:

Good design of any product handle is an important task. Handle design significantly determines the productivity, overall experience as well as the health in the short and long term of the product users. For designing appropriate handles, the basic and most important requirement is knowledge of the most relevant and specific product design and marketing parameters. This article is a study about the design and marketing descriptors for a specific category of product handles - namely, anatomical handles. Six expert industrial designers volunteered to participate in this research. Extensive review of relevant marketing literature on existing products with anatomical handles available on the internet was conducted and a repository of key descriptors was developed. From these descriptors, five design and marketing relevant factors were derived. These were titled as follows - (1) handle performance (along with 2 sub-categories); (2) grip function (3 sub-categories); (3) handle feel (3 sub-categories); (4) user health (4 sub-categories), and; (5) aesthetics and details (2 sub-categories). Details about the specific sub-categories, keywords and descriptor phrases have been described in the detailed article.