Product design is the process of creating a product that offers a solution to a problem in a particular market. Successful product design meets business and user needs. It includes digital media, experience design, and physical products. Services of this kind you can find from leading experts in design such as the Fireart Studio (https://fireart.studio/product-design-development-company/). But the next step is to figure out what it is.
The fundamentals of product design originate from the ideology of design thinking. It was designed as a customer-centric way to integrate the needs of real users into technology and business requirements. This allowed companies to solve rather complex problems.
The design thinking process is often used in product design. It consists of five steps that meet the needs of the user:
· Put yourself in the client’s shoes. To design with the user in mind, product designers first conduct research to find out who their target audience will be.
· State the problem. Based on the needs and opinions of the study participants, the designer will be able to clearly define the problem.
· Generate new ideas. Product designers and their teams analyze a wide range of potential creative ideas before proceeding to develop the right solution to a formulated problem.
· Create prototypes. The concept that was selected during the ideation phase will be formalized as a prototype (or multiple prototypes) for testing purposes. Prototypes help designers see tangible evidence that they are moving in the right direction. In addition, they contribute to the emergence of new ideas that may not have been seen before.
· Conduct testing. Designers reach out to users to make sure their designs work the way they intended. Designers return the information received to the concept formation stage in order to improve their product to such a state until it becomes perfect.
Who is a product designer?
The product designer role is easily confused with other design roles (such as the UX designer position). The product designer uses the same design thinking process, the same human-centered approach, the same market research, and software tools as the UX designer. However, their functions are different.
In essence, the key task of UX designers and product designers is to solve problems that are user-centric, but they have completely different priorities. The product designer focuses on creating a cost-effective product that is in demand and easy to use. The UX designer keeps the focus on the user experience of a product that is already considered profitable.
If you are interested in the product itself and not the business aspects of it, you may want to consider other positions that are similar to the product designer position. Here are some of them:
· Experience Designer (XD)
· Information architecture designer (IA)
· Interaction Designer (IX)
· Experience Architect (XA)
· User Interface (UI) Designer
· User Experience Designer (UX)
· UX Research Specialist (UX)
· UX Writer (UX)
In some cases, a product designer will perform some functions of these positions, depending on how large their team is. Although, as a rule, each of them is a separate position in the field of design.
What does a product designer do?
The product designer is responsible for the user experience and business goals of the product. He applies design thinking to come up with and create a solution that will meet the needs of users and businesses.
The position of a product designer is not universal. In different companies, his duties can vary from designing the user experience to a full set of designer functions. Here are the responsibilities that can be spelled out in his job description:
· User Experience (UX)
· User Interface (UI)
· Code writing
· Project management
· Decision function
· Team management
· Planning and conducting tests
· Wireframing
· Interaction with developers
· Marketing support
· Communication with customers
· Prototyping (sometimes in CAD)
· Data collection (if necessary)
· Presentation of the final product
In general, the product designer in a digital product agency is responsible for the product. He monitors whether he solves the problem that was planned to be minimized, whether the product is cost-effective and functional, and how happy the stakeholders are with the result.
