Product design is the process of creating new products for businesses to sell to their customers. It involves the generation and development of ideas through a systematic process that leads to the creation of innovative products. Thus, it is a major aspect of new product development.

The product design process is a set of strategic and tactical activities, from idea generation to commercialization, used to create a product design. In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible inventions and products. The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that people can use. Their evolving role has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to do things that include communicate, visualize, analyze, 3D modeling and actually produce tangible ideas in a way that would have taken greater human resources in the past.

Product design is sometimes confused with (and certainly overlaps with) industrial design, and has recently become a broad term inclusive of service, software, and physical product design. Industrial design is concerned with bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design and ergonomics, together in order to mass-produce goods. Other aspects of product design and industrial design include engineering design, particularly when matters of functionality or utility (e.g. problem-solving) are at issue, though such boundaries are not always clear.

Product design process

There are various product design processes and many focus on different aspects. One example formulation/model of the process is described by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnel in "The Seven Universal Stages of Creative Problem-Solving." The process is usually completed by a group of people with different skills and training—e.g. industrial designers, field experts (prospective users), engineers (for engineering design aspects), depending upon the nature and type of the product involved. The process often involves figuring out what is required, brainstorming possible ideas, creating mock prototypes and then generating the product. However, that is not the end. Product designers would still need to execute the idea, making it into an actual product and evaluating its success (seeing if any improvements are necessary).

The product design process has experienced huge leaps in evolution over the last few years with the rise and adoption of 3D printing. New consumer-friendly 3D printers can produce dimensional objects and print upwards with a plastic-like substance opposed to traditional printers that spread ink across a page.

The product design process, as expressed by Koberg and Bagnell, typically involves three main aspects: analysis, concept, and synthesis.

Depending on the kind of product being designed, the latter two sections are most often revisited (e.g. depending on how often the design needs revision, to improve it or to better fit the criteria). This is a continuous loop, where feedback is the main component.

The framework is divided into two primary stages: diverging and converging, each with its own steps and considerations.

Diverging stage:

During the diverging stage, teams explore the problem space broadly without predefined solutions. This phase involves engaging with core personas, conducting open-ended conversations, and gathering unfiltered input from customer-facing teams.

Demand-pull innovation and invention-push innovation

Most product designs fall under one of two categories: demand-pull innovation or invention-push innovation.

Demand-pull happens when there is an opportunity in the market to be explored by the design of a product. Therefore, it is in the product designer's best interest to consider the audiences who are most likely to be the product's end consumers. Keeping in mind how consumers will perceive the product during the design process will contribute to the product's success in the market. However, even within a specific audience, it is challenging to cater to each possible personality within that group.

One solution to that is to create a product that, in its designed appearance and function, expresses a personality or tells a story.

Product designers must consider every detail: how people use and misuse objects, potential flaws in products, errors in the design process, and the ideal ways people wish they could interact with those objects. Many new designs will fail and many won't even make it to market. Products designed to benefit people of all ages and abilities—without penalty to any group—accommodate our swelling aging population by extending independence and supporting the changing physical and sensory needs we all encounter as we grow older.

See also

  • Axiomatic product development lifecycle (APDL)
  • Industrial design
  • Sustainable design
  • Transgenerational design
  • Virtual product development
  • Universal design
  • Inclusive design

References