Today, technologies are evolving within the blink of an eye and it is getting hard to keep up with the trends. In this technologically rich era, the market is saturated with the latest and most innovative products. Consumers are ready to pay more for products that are designed intelligently, sustainable, and add value to their lives.
Product design focuses on the fulfillment of the preferences and expectations of the end-users. Product and UX designers identify the gap and pain points of users in the market. They use users’ challenges as opportunities to come up with the most innovative products that solve all the challenges faced by users and offer an unmatched user interface and experience design.
So, is that all there is to product design and strategy? Let’s dive deeper to gain a better understanding.
Product Design 101: What Exactly is it?
Product designing and development requires imagination and creativity to ensure that it meets all the goals and solves the problems of users. Here, ‘product’ may refer to digital products like websites, software, web, and mobile applications.
The key to a successful digital product design is to put yourself in the shoes of the consumers and understand their needs and expectations. This way, your product will not only have a user-friendly design but it will also solve the problems of customers.
Product design companies align consumers’ needs with business goals to create a successful design. They identify the pain points of users, address specific needs in the market and come up with a solution by optimizing the UX of the product.
Build a Good Design Strategy: Pillars of Design Thinking
Now that we have seen the big picture view of the design process, there are certain factors that contribute to the success of your product design and development. While design can be intricate and demanding, paying attention to the pillars can really help to cut through the clutter and come up with innovative design solutions.
Let’s go through the foundational pillars of product design that have helped us deliver successful and user-friendly products.
- Functionality First, Looks Second - Steve Jobs has always been an advocate for design thinking and to Apple-loyal customers their products feel practical yet flawless. Jobs hit the nail on the head when he said “Design is a really loaded word. I don’t know what it means. So we don’t talk a lot about design around here, we just talk about how things work. Most people think it’s about how they look, but it’s about how they work.”
It is crucial to ‘think like the user’ during your design and product development process. Functionality is truly the outcome of a user-friendly product that is problem-solving and fulfills consumers’ goals.
What really helps to create a successful UX product design is identifying the gap in the market by understanding the challenges faced by users. It is crucial to think from your consumers’ perspective in order to optimize your product’s design and offer an unmatched user experience.
- Make it Aesthetically Pleasing - It is a no-brainer that the first look always creates lasting impressions. Today, the market is overflowing with innovative products. To stand out from the competition and catch consumers’ attention, product designs should look appealing and aesthetically pleasing.
- Create Innovative Product Designs - Product design firms create innovative and unique products by adding better features, developing something new and original or by coming up with new versions of already existing products. When consumers see a revamped and creative product that adds more value to their lives, they immediately get drawn to that specifically. This not only augments the product’s growth but also drastically improves its performance.
- User-Centric and Problem Solving - During your product design process, it is crucial to first frame the problem faced by the users. This is key in order to design a seamless and user-friendly product that is a solution to all the issues faced by users.
To understand the users’ pain points and expectations, designers pursue a design thinking process that works for them.
- Idea Strikes - In the ideation phase, you can generate as many product design ideas as you want without any limitations and identify the most viable ones that will serve as an effective solution for the users’ problems.
Design thinking is an approach that is often used to focus on the target group the product is being created for. This way it will become easier to brainstorm ideas from the consumers’ perspective.
- Analyze The Market - Product design agencies conduct surveys in the market to analyze the target audience, their buying patterns, latest trends and competitors’ strategies. A thorough market research sets you up for success as it determines the longevity of your product and its potential for future growth.
- Wireframing - After collecting raw data and consumers’ opinions from user research, it is time to draw out blueprints of the potential product. In this stage, designers draw rough sketches that serve as visual representations of the digital products. This is known as wireframing. Wireframe design is a 2D illustration of your software, app or website layout and interface that will help to determine the website’s template, content and graphics.
- Make Sustainable Design Choices - While you can make your product stand out with stunning aesthetics and amazing functionality, making sustainable design choices is the way to go. Being mindful of what goes into the products for a sustainable future not only says a lot about your brand but also improves the product’s life cycle.
Sustainable design should be the end goal, but prototyping and testing must also focus on waste management and reduce the number of samples created.
Before going into the final design and product development process, the product has to go through a crucial stage called Quality Assurance (QA) where the design is reviewed to ensure that it is up to standards and fit for use. Using Quality Management practices and tools that support sustainable development and environmental safety is essential to ensure that the product design optimizes both the needs of the users and the planet, keeping innovation, functionality, and your company’s bottom-line in mind.
Conclusion
It is clear that today product design is ubiquitous. From devices, software to apps and websites, design is everywhere you look. This process can be very intricate and complicated but an intelligently designed product will always catch the attention of users especially in a market that is saturated with innovative products.
While product design is not rocket science, it isn’t a piece of cake either. It requires careful planning, attention to intricate details, sketching, idea testing, and juggling between a lot of other activities. It may seem like a daunting task but we are here to help you out with the UX product design process. Drop us a message and our in-house designers will get in touch with you!
