Don Rickert Design

This is Now a Don Rickert Design Site

I know; it does not make sense. The reality is that this site was a consulting-oriented site that would show up when potential consulting clients Googled "Don Rickert" and a bunch of other keywords related to design research, consumer research, marketing research, usability, etc.

We have kept the site and its resource articles active, because we know that many students of Industrial Design, Design Research, Consumer Research, Ergonomics / Human Factors, Market Research, Usability and Ethnography use our articles as resources.

We no longer seek work in those areas, but will, of course take on projects, but they have to be interesting, pay well and be ethical. Also, in order to protect ourselves from the typical situation where consulting clients lose their funding, a substantial severence payout in the the event of premature contract completion is part of all of any consulting contract we would consider. Obviously telling you about this is NOT marketing. If you want the best consulting in the areas that we used to seek engagements, email us your proposal...we DO NOT participate in competitive bidding.

So, until we have this site in shape, go to Adventurous Muse (www.AdventurousMuse.com) as your home base for the new Don Rickert Design (DESIGN ONLY...NO CONSULTING). For your information Don Rickert Design designs and makes cutting edge muscial instruments, furniture and other fascinating "niche" products.

Don Rickert Research & Design

Don Rickert Research & Design, a DBA for Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC, is a full-service multi-disciplinary design research and product design firm with TWO lines of business. It is essential that you understand this. We are located in Atlanta, GA.

Consulting Services: Learn More...

Focus is on solving your most challenging product development problems through observation, research. Don Rickert Research & Design Consulting provides New Product Development (NPD) services to companies that want to create a successful new and/or breakthrough product (or fix a flawed or outmoded existing product). Services include: Usability, User Experience, Design, Product Development and Ethnography.

Our Own Product Development (Primarily Ground-Breaking Musical Instruments): Learn more...

Doing business under the name Don Rickert Design(tm), we invent, design, produce and sell innovative musical instruments under two primary brand names:

1. Don Rickert Design: Mostly electric and electronic musical instruments, but also some cutting-edge modern acoustic instruments, all designed by Dr. Don Rickert or in collaboration with other top musical instrument designers.
2. Old Mill Musical Instruments: Mostly acoustic instruments of a more "traditional" (but cutting-edge) type, all designed by Dr. Don Rickert or in collaboration with other top musical instrument designers.

Don Rickert Design operates two primary online stores.

1. The first is The Adventurous Muse Store (motto: "Working to be the most interesting musical instrument store in the universe!"). The informative website and blog and "landing page" is The Adventurous Muse.
2. The second store, actually a department within the Adventurous Muse Store, is called Musicians' Sutlery and exists to serve the needs of 19th Century "living historians", selling authentic replicas of mid-19th Century musical instruments and accessories.

About Don Rickert Research & Design Consulting (Summary)

Due to the demands of our own in-house product development endeavors, we are no longer actively seeking consulting engagements. We continue to do all of the activities described, but primarily ONLY for our own products. We will accept consulting work from qualified customers who seek us out and are prepared to pay our our 50% (of the estimated full cost of the project) retainer prior to commencment of our work. Rates vary according to the work, but average at about $175/hour.

Musical instrument, furniture, adventure gear, rowing craft and unique niche products are our preferred consulting domains.

We are a Product Design, Design Research, Consumer Insights, UX (User Experience) and NPD (New Product Development) firm...Yes that includes Usability Evaluation, Survey Design & Analysis and Quantitative Data Analysis!

Putting it as simply and directly as possible, our primary business to date has been to help other companies like yours...

• To understand what your customers, consumers and/or users really care about
• To determine whether or not they care about what you are planning to sell them.
• To discover what it will take to bring your new product vision in line with your customers' and consumers' true needs and desires (and what are they willing to pay?)
• Design and test alternative embodiments of new products with real people before the development budget is wasted on a loser!

Basically, we do not participate in any of the common practices used to obtain free services (we have seen them all and can sniff them out in minutes...trust us on this)

• Free consulting...our billing clock starts after the first 30 minutes of discussion, regardless of the discussion channel (e.g. telephone, email, "informal" lunch chat, etc.)
• Participate in initial discussions with staff members who DO NOT have final budget authority for the potential project
• Participate in "bake-offs" or any other type of competitive proposal and bidding process
• Evaluation of projects that are already finished
• "Rubber stamp" your solution that you have already decided to pursue

Contact us NOW: don@DonRickertDesign.com

Before wasting a lot of time on finding what may appear to be the best bargain, check out what some of our clients have to say about us (see Endorsements and Raves)

Want more details about our methods, process, and so forth? We've got your details RIGHT HERE!

Don Rickert Design Getting Back to its Core Business--Design!

The adventurous business climate has prompted us to rethink our business model and tactics. While we will continue our work in the area of ground-breaking musical instrument (Adventurous Muse) and high-performance rowing craft designs, we will also be renewing our emphasis on being a full-service multi-disciplinary design research and product design firm.

Dr. Don Rickert ponders our business future...

Click on the photos for larger views.

For the observant Industrial Designers among you, that sure as heck is a genuine Eams Chair!