Seven out of ten buyers agree that product design is the number one factor when deciding if they want to buy a product or not. Think about this: As consumers, we buy products that look like they fit in with our aesthetics the most and any corporation worth their salt knows how to play into effective product design to reach their target market.
Before we dive right in, let’s take a closer look at what exactly product design is and how it can transform your product into one of the hottest-selling items in the market.
Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
What Is a Product Design Process?
The Product Design process is a critical framework that product designers use to solve specific problems. In this process, the product designer plays multiple roles and executes various tasks. In each step of the process, there are essential designer portfolio items to be considered.
The product design process and its steps become more evident as we understand the product design elements first.
What Are the Product Design Elements?
As with everything, there is a lot that goes into product design. The most successful businesses dedicate entire teams made up of various specialists to work solely on product design not only to appeal to their target audience but to reach new clientele. These teams include UX designers, marketing experts, animators, graphic designers, business analysts etc.
Product Designing is a multi-step process combining engineering, management, and graphics. It offers a complete understanding of what and how the final product will look, feel and what tasks/problems it will be able to solve.
The product design elements can be divided into three fundamental components:
- Appearance
- Quality
- Functionality
To create a successful, competitive product, designers must work on an attractive and functional product that promises high functionality, performance, maximum availability, and security.
Product Design Process Steps
Let’s get directly to the ten crucial steps in designing a product:
- Brainstorming
- Defining the Product
- Executing the User Research
- Sketching
- Prototyping
- Specifications Compilation
- Getting the Factory Samples Ready
- Testing the Samples
- Starting the Development/Production Process
- Assuring Quality
1. Brainstorming
This, of course, is the first step in the product design process. In most organizations, two groups of people are created. One comprises people who generate ideas to solve a problem, and the other includes those who are in charge of processing the proposed ideas.
Now, the brainstorming steps further consist of the following three phases:
Defining the problem by announcing it and selecting the participants of both the teams
Generating the idea is the second phase. This has to do with a creative approach where the participants communicate every idea they can think of. The number of ideas is more important than the quality of the same. The ideas can even be absurd but should be evaluated anyway.
Select the most viable idea among the ones proposed in the final stage of the brainstorming process. There are also plenty of brainstorming tools available on the internet that can assist you in making your choice. This action will involve appreciation and criticism of the ideas undertaken by the second team.
2. Defining the Product
Once the brainstorming step is over and the teams have selected the most viable ideas for the future product, it is time to identify a specific number of general expectations for implementation.
Even in this stage, the output comes across as a list of somewhat abstract ideas. This step is more of a process of determining the directions in which the teams can work further rather than providing exact guidelines on the product development process.
3. Executing the User Research
The third step in the product design process is all about research. The product design team conducts detailed market research to determine the presence of competitors in the market. Alongside that, you also need to assess the prospective longevity of the product, the definition of the trends, and so on.
This research establishes the grounds on which the customer portraits can be built. These portraits, in turn, would give your team a better understanding of what the final product should be.
An ideal parameter should include factors like age, gender, marital status, income level, employment, place of residence, job position, needs and fears, desires, and the typical problems.
In this step, the business analysts and marketers have full responsibility. This step is essential, even if the company is trying to create a universal product for everyone. The probability should be narrowed down to ensure the budget is well utilized.
4. Sketching
Preparing sketches is an efficient way of working on large projects with a significant budget. Sketching helps define the direction of the search before investing in finding a solution.
With sketching, you can narrow down a direction while choosing the central concept. Only this will pave the way for working on the layouts, composition, edits, and further refinement of the idea.
5. Prototyping
Creating a prototype is sometimes as important as designing the product itself. Prototyping gives you a skeleton of the final product’s look.
However, even with this skeleton, you can define the product's functionality, user interaction, and even its basic appearance. Prototyping is necessary because it helps avoid many errors and corrections in the future.
This saves time and money while promising peace of mind.
6. Specifications Compilation
In this step, the product designers should create a list of specifications, such as the traits of a package design. Compiling the specifications enables reviewing the requirements for the finished product and the possible solutions in minute detail.
These specifications should also contain the final delimitation of deadlines, costs, and responsibilities. At the final product development stage, these documents would be precious.
7. Getting the Factory Samples Ready
This step involves manufacturing the pre-production samples. These samples will allow you to understand whether the core idea of the product will attract real users, especially if a rebranding process is in progress.
At this stage, you will also be able to find out if you need to shift the activity vector to the other vital points. At the physical level, you can estimate how ready the manufacturing sector is to produce the goods with the desired quality and speed.
For software, such samples are called MVP. It is a type of wireframe application containing essential functionality.
8. Testing the Samples
Sample testing allows you to identify the flaws of the product promptly. It is wise to find out the inconsistencies before moving on to the more expensive implementation stage.
Manufacturing and testing can happen as many times as possible. The idea is to gain the maximum possible positive feedback from the customers.
9. Starting the Development/Production Process
By now, you must have already developed an entire technical specification with properly defined tasks, responsibilities, requirements, deadlines and budget.
The goal is to break these significant tasks into smaller ones and assign priorities. Agile methodologies such as Kanban or Scrum are used at this step in the software industry.
10. Assuring Quality
While quality assurance is necessary at all stages, it is the final step after the release and maintenance of the product. The final responsibility is to ensure the quality.
Regarding app development, the QA team conducts pre-release testing to establish the quality of the solution that is realized. It is necessary to find out if the product meets the specifications of its requirements.
What Is the Need for Designing a Product?
The importance of excellent product design keeps increasing with constant and rapid evolution of technology, Therefore, organizations trying to create an impressive digital outcome must focus on a sophisticated process beyond looks. This calls for knowledge and expertise in user research, psychology, business analysis, and software development.
Such understanding enables designers to promise a successful digital experience that meets the users’ expectations and helps achieve business goals.
Consequently, when users have a positive product experience, they recommend it and at times, become advocates of the product itself. In today’s digital-driven world, users look for products that make their life easy and quick.
For instance, an app might have a great idea behind it, but if the overall experience is confusing, then this idea is of no use. Similarly, the product design and not just the idea that ultimately meets the end-user’s wishes and expectations.
Evaluating the Product Design Development Process
Once you have started the product design process, it is time to evaluate the same by asking the following questions:
- What Are the Advantages of My Product?
- What Are the Disadvantages of My Product?
- What Are the Promotional Possibilities of My Product?
- Are There Any Possible Threats to a Successful Promotion?
What Are the Advantages of My Product?
The answer requires an evaluation of the implemented functions in the product and how valuable these are for the target audience. Also, you should convey this value proposition easily to the consumers. For instance, the problems the product solves or what parameters one can use to measure the success of the idea.
What Are the Disadvantages of My Product?
Looking at the disadvantages means finding out if there are some ways to improve the idea behind the product. It also accompanies studying what can be an obstacle to its successful promotion and what could be lacking in the product when seen from the perspective of the target audience.
What Are the Promotional Possibilities of My Product?
It is essential to determine how easy it will be to promote the new product in the market, what its competitive advantages are, and which channels would be most viable for the promotion. The success of the product, in the long run, is also considered.
Are There Any Possible Threats to a Successful Promotion?
Evaluating whether there would be any noticeable risks to the promotion of the product is also necessary. You must try to identify the financial problems you can encounter or if any competing products will be challenging to outperform, and so on.
Product Design Process Takeaway
So, the product design process is indispensable for business development though it might seem challenging to start with one.
A professional approach combined with in-depth industry knowledge is necessary, from analysis to regular updates.
As product design is also a representation of the product, it has to strike perfection to be loved by the customers.
Outsourcing the services of some of the best product design agencies and digital design companies can help you with this.
