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Designing a product with several connected systems means coordinating more than its appearance: industrial design, mechanical engineering, embedded software, and systems architecture all have to contribute to a product that works as a whole. That integration is the central theme of Electronic Design’s August 20, 2024, discussion with John Leavitt, a human-centered designer and product developer at Intelligent Product Solutions (IPS).
Why advanced product design is an integration problem
In Electronic Design’s framing, complexity grows when a product brings together many interrelated subsystems and a range of core technologies. A change in one area can affect another: the physical form must accommodate mechanical components, software must interact with hardware, and the overall system must behave coherently.
That makes product design a coordination challenge as much as a set of specialized disciplines. A successful design has to connect decisions across those disciplines rather than treat each as an isolated task. The article introduces this theme through a podcast conversation, but its published description does not establish a specific method, case study, or measured outcome from Leavitt.
Four disciplines that have to work together
Industrial design
Industrial design concerns the product as people encounter and use it. In a cross-disciplinary project, its decisions need to align with what the product must contain and how its underlying systems operate.
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Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering addresses the product’s physical construction. Its work has to connect the intended form and use with the components and constraints of the built object.
Embedded software
Embedded software is part of the product itself, not merely an add-on to its physical design. Its behavior depends on the hardware it controls or communicates with, so the software–hardware boundary is an important coordination point.
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Systems architecture
Systems architecture provides a way to consider how the product’s parts and technologies fit together. It is especially relevant when a product contains multiple interdependent subsystems, the source’s stated context for greater design complexity.
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The four disciplines named in the article suggest useful questions for teams planning a complex product. These are practical prompts inferred from the disciplines involved; they are not a process or recommendations attributed to Leavitt.
- Cross-discipline decisions: Which choices affect more than one specialty, and who needs to be involved before those choices are fixed?
- Hardware and software interfaces: What must the embedded software know about the hardware, and what does the hardware need to provide for the software to behave as intended?
- User-facing design and system constraints: Where might a usability or form decision conflict with engineering or architecture requirements, and how will the team resolve that conflict?
- Whole-product behavior: How will the team check that the subsystems work together, rather than only confirming that each part works in isolation?
These questions help make integration visible early. The available description does not specify how Leavitt’s conversation answered them, so they should be read as a way to apply the topic—not as a summary of his stated method.
What the conversation does—and does not—establish
The Electronic Design article is an interview-led discussion of product creation and integration, not a product review or buying guide. It identifies Leavitt as a human-centered designer and product developer at IPS, and describes the company’s capabilities as including industrial design, mechanical engineering, embedded software, and systems architecture.
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The page description supports the broad theme of designing products whose technologies and subsystems must work together. It does not provide a complete transcript, a specific design framework, performance figures, or detailed product examples. The company information identifies relevant service areas; it does not by itself establish an endorsement or a recommendation to hire IPS.
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Design Critique: Products for People published a separate John Leavitt interview on February 28, 2023, titled “Interview: John Leavitt on Industrial Design.” Its description discusses two firefighting products, design processes and philosophies, educational resources, and privacy and security in user experience. Those subjects belong to that separate interview; they should not be treated as topics covered in the 2024 Electronic Design conversation.
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