6 Steps to Create Product Designs That Stand Out

Your company’s name, website, and logo are just the beginning of branding. Yes, they are important but if your product won’t sell, they probably won’t have much of an effect.

Customers tend to choose things that attract them. And the only factor that distinguishes one brand from another on the market, among a sea of identical products, is its design.

Good product designs effectively communicate with the customer.

This is why it is crucial for businesses to create product designs that are original, creative, and that they respond to customers’ needs and expectations.

Let’s look at the key role that product designs play and the methods that will aid you in creating excellent product designs.

What is a Product Design?

The process of conceptualizing an idea and developing it into a finished product is called a product design. A product design prioritizes both form and function in the creation of practical tools that are utilized on a daily basis. In other words, design that satisfies the needs of the business is, in essence, a product design. The product designer is in charge of every aspect of the design process, including research, UX, and visuals.

Understanding the need of customers, fixing issues, and producing visually appealing products are all responsibilities of product designers.

The Elements of Product Design

Today, organizations understand that a product needs to do more than just be functional. Products need to connect with customers in more complex ways in order to cut through the noise of limitless choice.

The following are the key elements of product design you need to keep in mind:

• Unique Experiences: Your product designs should improve the customer experience. Products that positively alter the customer’s view are typically more successful.
• Authenticity: They should make you stand out from the crowd. Your product can grab people’s attention and turn heads if its design is authentic and well-executed.
• Aesthetics: It is crucial to make sure that a product’s aesthetics adhere to its core function and express a design semantic that the user is comfortable with.
• Interaction: Elegantly address problem areas in your design. Make sure your product’s user interactions are engaging and expressive.
• Novelty: Your product design should uphold the principles of your brand. A strong design language may support a strong brand and even cross generational boundaries.

Product Design Tools

Utilizing a wide variety of design tools is commonly necessary for designing a product. Here are a few tools that can significantly improve your product designs:

• Adobe XD: This is a vector-based design tool made exclusively for UX design. It can be used on mobile devices as a cloud app or as a desktop software on a computer.
• Figma: A variety of graphic design jobs can be completed with this cloud-based vector graphics and prototyping software. It operates directly in a browser, so your projects are accessible from any system. All you’d need is an account with your login credentials, and voila!
• Sketch: Sketch is an all-in-one digital design platform that offers developer hand-off, prototyping, and collaborative design tools.
• InVision: InVision is widely used as a potent prototyping tool. You can create and prototype on the same platform. InVision Studio provides a wide range of potent animations and interactions.
• Illustrator: Product designers can simplify their lives by working on their projects in all common formats. Information architecture, visual design, and branding are all things that Illustrator can assist you with.
• Photoshop: It is the most well-known image editing tool. Photoshop is a great place for individuals who create commercials.

The Product Design Process

A business must have a well-organized process with distinct, sequential processes for planning and integration. To build a design process, you need to go through a series of processes known as a product design process.

Let’s now go over the six steps involved in the product design process.

Empathize

Empathizing with the target audience for whom the product is being designed, is the first step in the product design process. You gain a deeper understanding of the issue you’re attempting to resolve. To learn about the problems and experiences of your audience, conduct surveys, usability testing, or interviews with them.

Define

Compile all of the data you gathered during the empathy stage and carefully examine it to point out the main issues you noticed. It’s a good idea to define problems from a human perspective rather than from a product perspective to stay true to the core principles of design thinking.

Ideate

Once you’ve identified the problem and gained insight into the user’s pain points, the next stage is to work towards fixing it. Start coming up with ideas and solutions for the issue you’ve recognized. Use your imagination to generate ideas and design concepts that solve the user’s concerns.

Prototype

Choose the solutions that will best address the issue, then start prototyping. The proposed solutions created in the ideate stage can be thoroughly tested by building a prototype of the product. Making a prototype enables concept realization and decision-making regarding the best line of action.

Test

If the issues you discovered in the define stage are resolved, test the usability of the solution. By testing, you can quickly discover any defects in the product or compliance issues. Testing can be iterated as many times as necessary until it meets all requirements and receives enough positive customer feedback.

Evaluation

There is much more to this process than just ‘meeting the eye’ that is why evaluation is a crucial step. Once the product is in use and in the hands of your users, you should monitor how well it is doing. Adoption, activation, drop-off, churn, and retention rates are a few important metrics you should keep an eye on.

Conclusion

Product design is becoming increasingly crucial in today’s fiercely competitive market. The entire process, from the conception and research to the testing of the product design, calls for extensive understanding in marketing and design. Good product designs not only meet customer needs but also take you a step further in making their experience with your brand a delightful one.

Need an Extra Set of Hands in Designing a Product That Delights Customers? Talk to Us!