Defining Product Design: Understanding The Industry

In an era where the only constant is change, our culture as consumers is always evolving. With technology playing an increasingly central role in our daily lives, we expect everything to be available at the push of a button – and as customized an experience as possible. Whether using our smartphones to order food or browsing an app for a new home, we have become reliant upon different forms of technology to satisfy a myriad of needs. So how does product design fit into the way we consume goods and services?

Product design as a verb is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. Designing a product is a very broad concept, it is essentially the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a design process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of new product development. However, many business experts will agree that product design is the process of identifying a market opportunity, clearly defining the user’s needs and problem, developing a proper solution for that problem, and validating the solution with real users. When considering high-quality products or features, designers must understand business objectives, know the elements of a good design, and be able to answer the following questions:

Research

In order to develop a deeper understanding of your consumer audience, you must conduct and gather research to cater to the people for whom you are designing your product/service for. This is crucial.

Define

Create a point of view that is based on user needs and insights.

Brainstorm

In order to generate a wide range of potential solutions, design thinking and brainstorming sessions are required during this phase of product development.

Prototype

After narrowing down design concepts, build a prototype (or series of prototypes) to test your hypothesis.