Product Design For Beginners: What You Need To Know

Introduction 

You must have thought about the total number of products you use every day. Either physical or digital. Physical products are calculators, shoes, and others while digital products are software and apps. We use about 1-1000 different products every day. All these are created by product designers.

As consumers, what matters to us is the results. We are not bothered by what went on or is still going on behind scenes.

This article will explain what product design is and the skill required to be a product designer in a consumer product development job.

What Is Product Design? 

In a simple and well-explained way, it is the process of creating an image for a product in order to solve new or existing problems. Product designing is a big and long process that requires many components. These components are user interface, product design, and user experience.

UI is the visual aspect of the product that needs to be designed;

UX deals with what the user of the product needs it for and how it’ll work;

Product Design means the body of the business itself. The joining together of what the business needs and consumer need.

Product Design Process  

A product designer knows what exactly he wants the design to look like right from the beginning. To do this, you need to understand a few design processes.

• Identifying your customers and their needs: This includes knowing their goals, motivation, and worries. Knowledge of this should tell how your product will solve their problems and the business itself.

• Visual process: This is the aspect of color, font, and other things related to visualization that the product design might need. Knowing what would grab the attention of your target end-user is necessary for this process.

• Communication process: This is the mock-up and testing of the product’s prototype. Here, you review what the end-user will see on-screen.

• Imagination process: After going through the problem then you need to brainstorm the next line of action.

• Research process: Making research on the users’ preferences by looking through other jobs, and competition, and getting data to assist. 

Reasons To Work In Product Design 

• It allows you to explore your creativity and your analytical side.
• It is a good business prospect and provides you with a substantial salary, at the end of the month.
• You’ll experience growth in your business and yourself, as an individual.
• Product design as a profession is currently in high demand. 

Basic Skills Needed 

There are some skills you need to engage in product design. They are:

1. A certificate
2. Your creativity
3. Listening ability
4. Visualization aspect
5. Ability to understand human behavior
6. UX
7. Web development

Other Soft Skills Required 

1. Ability to decide: having numerous options and being able to decide which is best.
2. Efficiency: there are many tasks in product design. You have to be efficient while designing.
3. Empathy: putting others in your shoe. You have to understand your end-users and what they want to see.
4. Analytical skills: this means being able to efficiently make use of technology and available resources to solve new or existing problems.
5. Organization skills: being able to organize and mobilize team members towards the fulfillment of a certain goal.
6. Communication: you should be communicating with your team at regular intervals on team projects.
7. Ability to make mistakes: be comfortable to make mistakes and learn from them.
8. Solving problems: have the zeal to always solve users’ problems.

Conclusion 

Product design is wide and has many branches. Hope the little that was discussed here helps you understand what product design is and why you need to pursue a career in this.