Reinventing Mature Products Through Colors, Materials, and Finishes

In this paper, we review the role of colors, materials and finishes (CMF) in reinventing the notebook computer (NB) product, and report two case studies of CMF practices in two large NB manufacturers in Taiwan. By in-depth interviews of CMF professionals and product designers, we documented and analyzed the role of CMF in NB product development process, contents and sources of CMF database, services provided by CMF professionals, development of new CMF, and interaction between designers, engineers and CMF professionals.