Product designing is basically an end-to-end approach of coming up with a product by visualizing, imagining, and mixing what the user wants in such a way that produces systematically a non-arguable product.
For a product to end up profiting from the business or company it is mandatory for the product designer to know what the customer wants. Product designers try to clear up actual issues for real people through the usage of understanding and information given by the customers by seeing what costumer wants and need, On the other hand, Poor product design generally falls into one of the three orders below:
- The product does now no longer solves the problem efficiently.
- The product causes extra troubles instead.
- The product is simply expensive or out of reach.
For these to not happen, It is the duty of a product designer to examine the wants, needs, habits, preferences, frustrations of the end-user. While the aesthetical, artistic, and appreciative design does play a role until they become a problem in the above considerations. While in a successful product design timeline, the end product meets the business or companies specifications, helps to build a brand and make a profit, clear up the user’s problems, and on top of that offers a good amount of money anywhere possible. But to get all of the positive sides of product designing, making a product design that may be successful can be a bit tricky. Unique product design calls for deep know-how of the users, what exactly the user wants from you. The higher the Product designers understand their audience, empathize with what they want, the extra powerful and applicable yet aesthetical the final design of the product will be.
Those who design products are referred to as “Product designers” and they are responsible for users’ wanting’s on their products and providing users with such products which will work absolutely with what they need and onto the business goals and strategies thus profiting the business. Product designing is not a one-time deal but it plays a role in processing clients wanting’s till the top of a product’s lifespan.
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The evolution/origin/History of Product designing
Every product we’ve used in our lives has been designed via way of means of someone: the smartphone in your pocket, to the garments you are wearing, to the auto that’s sitting in your driveway. And while the same way product designing is usually viewed as a reasonably recent industrial development. When looking for a visualizing picture of the history of Product Designing, I found a lot of information, but never got a full picture of it. I have put together the information I collected after researching from many different sites, therefore, creating a more productive yet educational timeline mentioned below :
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The uprising of Industry :
The first heavily mass-produced and automated products began out to hit the market at the beginning of 1750 and finished in 1850. The products (which includes equipment’s for fabricating and pottery) marked a move away from handmade and individually produced goods.
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The Great Reform :
The Great reform turned into a duration of creative revival withinside the industrial sphere because during this time the first modern product design (such as furniture) met with primary modern technology which is the incandescent lamp and the microphone or simply a mic.
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MODERNISM :
The designs from the 1800s started to appear extra like their modern counterparts starting with withinside the 1940s and preserving via to 1980s, Carriage designs were evolved into Automobiles and miniaturization brought about products just like the Sony Walkman.
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FROM the 1990s to today :
Over the last thirty years, the products have taken nearly unimaginable shape and varied differently from one another, have turned out to be much less constrained because of miniaturization and digitization. The end results are experimental and iterative design, a shift to virtual merchandise, and an overabundance of desire in lots of sectors.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF HOW PRODUCT DESIGN EVOLVED :
Before the mass production era of manufacturing, craftspeople constructed products by and large way of means of hard, manual labor. This means fewer products were obtained as a result of lack of availability of products thus increasing its cost and not easily accessible. Then, the industrialization of manufacturing allowed companies or businesses to mass-produce products at a medium to a low rate.
To help sell their products to the ever-growing population which now could afford it, Manufacturers did assist industrial designers to design such products that were not just helpful, easing up the hard work but also aesthetically and artistically pleasing to the eye.
After some time a sub-group of industrial design namely product design has evolved which is because industrial design now mainly focuses on product design that is furniture, goods including household appliances. The product design does not just signify only goods and household appliances but it can also refer to any product- even digital, virtual products such as software applications.
What does an average product design procedure appearance like?
The procedure behind the Product designing may vary from company to company, but the professional follow the same philosophy or framework to build the pillars.
Product design starts with the arise of Problem definition and creation of ideas. During the early times, a team of product designers will come to a better understanding of the issues which users are facing then come up with solutions (few admirable and some not) that will solve the customers’ needs within the limitations said out by the company.
Now, the designers focus on FEASIBILITY. This is analyzing how much the product can cost, the common issues it might acknowledge, and how difficult it is to be prepared and to be bought. A prototype is developed only before the final stage.
In the end, the prototype enters the test phase. During this time, the designers think of the final touches to the product by giving it continuous improvements. Customers are brought in to test the product after the test has been conducted some other changes are made, and this is how the product is ready for the market
TYPES OF PRODUCT DESIGNING JOBS :
Different companies thinking these days as product designing jobs would possibly consist of numerous roles in different names. For example:
UX DESIGNER :
The development of the product, its design, shape, function, and all the specifications that a user has asked for with his product are handled by a User experience designer. In shortcoming up to users wants and providing users with meaningful and relevant experience.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER :
Visual communicators create concepts by hand or graphic designing software. From adding pictures to changing logos to adding icons, shapes, fonts, layouts, and all the wants users ask for are all in the hands of a graphic designer.
MOTION/ANIMATION DESIGNER:
Motion/Animation designer works to add motion in text, logos to setting abstract elements or simply putting the graphics into motion in a product.
USER RESEARCH :
Under the large product designing organization, User research solely deals with the understanding, behavior, needs, wants and other feedback methodologies of a user.
DATA ANALYST :
These designers focus on user research and examine new ways to get a better layout of the product, add a new feature in it, to change it in a positive way.
PROTOTYPER :
The product team members who bring in idea’s responsible for designing a prototype, measuring the process of designing in the development of the product. This often begins when the prototyper either creates a concept or uses the designs of others and begins developing a realistic approach to it. In a company that makes physical products, a prototyper will hand-craft mock-ups.
PRODUCT DESIGNER :
A product designer is responsible for adding aesthetical designs and developing the product. Their basic aim is to improve the way of the existing product and work on its looks and/or how to produce them at a low cost usually by taking directions provided by the team management to maximize profit and get fully onto business goals and objectives set by the product designer.
ON AN AVERAGE EARNING OF A PRODUCT DESIGNER :
Like all professional professions, salaries grow with experience and period. Product designers make an average of $105,000/annum in the U.S, while a Senior Product Designer makes approximately $130,000/annum while a Lead Product Designer often makes in the range of $140,000/annum ($63,000/annum is lowest to as much as $150,000/annum.)
HOW TO GET INTO PRODUCT DESIGNING :
For staying firm in the fields of anything it is mandatory to have basic knowledge of it and a passion for it, that is everyone has told us that for you to be a doctor, U need to go into a doctorate college, do MBBS so on and so forth, to be an engineer, go to engineering college get a degree and work on your career. But for product designing it’s not the same, For you to be a product designer one can get a bachelor’s degree in design, yet it’s not essential. I’ve encountered many product designers that can build their careers by creating strong portfolios, honing their communication skills, and working other jobs that can transition into a product design role.
IMPORTANCE OF PRODUCT DESIGNING IN THE PRESENT ERA :
Product design is nothing but the way the company arranges the features and benefits of the product in an appealing way for customers.
If you actually compare laptops and desktops, they differ just in design yet of the same product. However, in the last several years, we’ve seen that the market share of Desktop has rapidly dropped and that of laptop has increased.
Product design is a fundamental part of brand establishment. It shapes the future of business from the start and can be a great determinant of its sustainment. Its importance in the present era is given below :
- Better product design gives a competitive advantage to the company over other brands as it is preferred more by the customers.
- Product design significantly pulls the crowd, especially for technology-able offerings such as Automobiles, Laptops, and Smartphones.
- The design also plays a massive role in heavy machinery or services as it characterizes the difference between efficiency and chaos.
- Packing of the product design plays a major role in profiting the business as the more gorgeous the product can be the more will it target customers.
For example, Apple in the late ’90s introduced the all-in-one, brightly colored translucent computer which made its competitor’s beige boxes look incredibly average. Following that, It has honed down itself providing slim and sensitive yet no less aesthetic product.
As Steve Jobs said: “DESIGN IS NOT JUST WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AND FEELS LIKE. DESIGN IS HOW IT WORKS.”
EXAMPLES OF BRANDS WITH EXCELLENT PRODUCT DESIGN :
- Tesla
- Nike
- Airbus 380
- Boeing 787
- Apple AirPods / Apple watch.
TOOLS PRODUCT DESIGNER USE :
As product designing is an ever-growing field of work, Proper tools are used to fully come up to the needs of users which includes :
- Journey mapping
- Graphic designing apps
- Research and data analytics tools (e.g Spreadsheet, Sophisticated A/B testing apps)
- Project Management apps (e.g Trello)
- Product roadmap apps ( e.g Product Plan)
- Prototyping tools
CONCLUSION :
Product design is not just to design products or make them look more aesthetic. Product design is much more than what users see on their screens.
~ Everything is at its best when it reaches its maximum potential.
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