Interestig article for clients, when they are asking themselves how many design proposal is enough.
“One question we get from new clients while drafting industrial design proposals is how many concepts they’ll be reviewing in the early phases of a project. Every client and every project challenge is different, but more often than not we agree on an expectation of between four and six concepts for the first phase of design exploration.
Proposed effort and cost play into this decision, but the number of well-considered concepts we deliver is linked to more than that. Fewer than four, and you’re probably not exploring the full range of possible outcomes; more than six, and your client may be prone to make a poor selection—and end up with a failed product. This conclusion is backed up not just by our own experience over hundreds of projects, but by a healthy dose of cognitive research into the way people make decisions. More on that research later.”
via How Many Industrial Design Concepts Is Too Many? – Core77.