IN THE last couple of posts on online creation, I wrote about frictionless creation, product relevancy and immediate context. I think all these factors are important to make online creation successful. In this last post of the series, I am writing about open-ended and closed-ended creation.

Let me explain what I mean with Open-ended and Closed-ended Online Creation. Closed-ended is online creation within limits, and the end goal or purpose of creating is clear. As a user, you can configure or modify but cannot fundamentally change the form and function of what the creation should be. Perfect examples are product configurators. It gives you freedom to express, but the end result keeps – more or less – the same form and function.

Open-ended creation allows you to create but does not limit either form and/or function. It is up to the user to determine what it shall be. Example is twitter. People use it for conversations, news notifications or link sharing. Twitter does not restrict the use cases and limits only the form. Not the function. You see a lot of creative expressions based on Twitter because of that design decision. It allowed the platform for creation to become greater than its creators could have foreseen.

Obviously, open-ended creation allows for more elaborate, creative expressions. The key to success though is to either limit the form or function to make it understandable and doable from a users’ perspective.

Designing content for 3D printing today is hard because of this. There are two options to create content; 3D design software and product configurators. 3D design software offers no limits, but adds lots of friction due to the complexity and steep learning curve. Or we have product configurators, which are only mildly successful because they limit too much – both form and function at the same time.

An interesting concept is Mineways in this regard. It is an extremely simple 3D editor which is open-ended in form and function. Another one, which comes to mind, is TinkerCAD, though I still feel it does not give enough context to make me excited.

The key for success for 3d printing is easy creation and modification of designs. My dream is to enable frictionless creation combined with strong open-ended abilities for expressing creativity. I hope we can get there!

IN THE last couple of weeks, I wrote about Online Creation. Things I am thinking about are, what makes a product relevant? What motivates people to create online? One of the striking aspects of creation is that when you give people a blank canvas, they have no inspiration on what to create. This is called the Blank Canvas Syndrome.

I think one of the major barriers to overcome for Personal Fabrication & 3D Printing for home users is solving the Blank Canvas Syndrome.

An important aspect is immediate context in the online creation process. People need to immediately grasp the context on how a particular concept applies to them. They need to be able to understand how to use it and what they can do with it. Even when it is only at a superficial level.

What does it mean for me?
How would I use it?

When looking at creation for 3D printing, there is, for example, TinkerCAD. TinkerCAD is an awesome 3D online creation tool. It is easy to use and simple to understand. But if you show it to somebody, they do know what to do with it. It is missing immediate context. The same applies to 3D printers as a whole. If you ask, they do not know.

If you look at Twitter and Facebook, it is immediately clear what the context is and how it would apply to the user. I regard Twitter and Facebook also as online creation services. I think their success is very much related to this.

If you look at 3D printing of products, one of the latest popular successes was printing of your Minecraft creations. Eric Haines wrote a software application to export Minecraft models and save them as readily  3D printable files. The power of this concept is that there is no need to explain the proposition to the users. It generated immediate excitement among the Minecraft community.

Now I do not want to say that Minecraft is the ultimate 3D printing proposition – far from it – but it does show that easy to understand concepts work way better than more free-form solutions. At least for the general public. I hope we see more examples popping up in the coming year, and I would love to hear ideas on how to improve immediate context for 3D printing.

ON A regular basis, I hear people telling me that they do not know what to make with a 3D printer. Or that do not see the point of 3D printing or personal fabrication. In some cases, they take a look at the products available at Shapeways and do not find anything that interests them. They find it to be expensive or geeky or uninteresting. But it all boils down to relevancy! There is a lot of talk about the killer application for 3D printing. But how you look at it, it comes down to making things – making products. The challenge for 3D printing is to what you can make relevant. So what makes a product relevant? I see three factors, which makes a product relevant in the context of 3D printing:

1. Design (form and function)
2. Material(s)
3. Price

Design
The design is all about form and function. The product has an intended use, and it should support that in an optimal way. The form itself should be appealing to the target audience.

Material
Material should be applicable for the design and support the intended function of the product. Often it needs to look and feel good. But also longevity, resistance to outside influences and sturdiness are important requirements.

Price
Price is a fluid definition with regard to relevancy. For instance a higher price for a particular product, can make it more relevant. The same applies the other way around. If it is too expensive, than it is simply not worth it, and it will not sell. Obviously price should cover cost and margin. In the end, the price should be in line with expectations of the target customers.

All three factors work together as a system. I mean with that better materials lead to higher price, which in turn can lower the product relevancy. It is a balancing act.

For example, you find a vase and want to have it made. The material is glazed ceramics. It measures 5x5x12 inches. Sounds good, right? If I tell you, the price ia $300 and delivery takes 3 weeks. Still interested? Another example you find a beautiful lamp shade. It costs $350, but it is absolute you stunning. But then you read that you have to use a LED or other low temperature bulb. Are you still willing to pay $350 for that?

3D printing is quite popular in high-end design. High-end design is less sensitive to cost. Larger pieces are expensive but high-end design can live with that. They also have margin to spare on post-finishing the products to improve the look and feel of the material, as well.

With Shapeways, we try to lower the barrier of entry for relevant products custom made using 3D printing. By applying mass-production know-how, and adapting it to unique one-off production, we are reducing the cost of 3D printing. We also invest in offering of post-finishing options to improve the look and feel of 3D printed products. It is our continuing quest to raise the relevancy of our product portfolio. It is our goal to enable everyone to buy, make and sell cool and relevant products on Shapeways.

David Minich started in 2011 his company Make Eyewear to solve his problem that he could not find any glasses he liked. Now his company delivers designer glasses and personalized glasses – or Freestyle glasses as he calls them – as well. You can order their glasses online. What is interesting is that he uses 3D printing via Shapeways to produce the frames and assembles them before shipping them to customers. There is a great background article on Make Eyewear at Fast Co.Design.

What I like about the story is that it shows two things. First it shows that 3D printing makes startup companies who produce physical goods possible. And second that 3D printing can be used as a manufacturing technology.

Where the internet and open source software have significantly reduced the cost for startups to create online services 3D printing is doing the same for manufacturing. Startups look for product-market fit and need to quickly iterate through product designs based on customer feedback and behavior. The internet and web sites support this type of company development. But the same applies to 3D printing. An entrepreneur can quickly develop and manufacture a design without a lot of upfront investment. He can continuously update the design throughout product-market fit stage of the company.

In existing manufacturing there are two major drawbacks and that is the upfront investment – to create tooling and molds etc. – and lead time – assuming you produce overseas. Both are not helping entrepreneurs to get as fast possible to product-market fit.

Make Eyewear is showing that you can use 3D printing as a manufacturing technology and you can go quickly from design to implementation. I expect that Internet startups will be joined in the near future by (physical) products related startups as the fast rising stars in the business scene.