What is CMF and how does it Enhance Product Design?

Creating a good first impression is always important, and this is especially true when it comes to product design goals. The exterior of any product, including the color, texture and graphics, is known as CMF (Color Material Finish). CMF plays a significant role in the user experience as well as a product’s overall impression to stakeholders during the product design process. The way a product looks, feels, and functions, plays a large role in how likely customers are to buy it, and how it is perceived by stakeholders.

The Importance of a CMF Strategy

CMF design should be an integral part of the entire prototyping process from concept to completion. Many designers unfortunately spend most of their time on the functionality and shape aspects of the product development and leave CMF as an extra, or rather an afterthought. A high quality design cannot be achieved without thinking about CMF at the beginning of the process and investing similar efforts as those invested in the product’s geometrical design. The shape and the CMF impact each other and are equally important for a successful design. In other words, the geometry should be tweaked during the development lifecycle to fit with the CMF and not only the other way around.