PRODUCT DESIGN/DESIGNING

Meaning: Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. It is the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.

In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible products. The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that other people can use.

Their evolving role has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to communicate, visualize, and analyze ideas in a way that would have taken greater manpower in the past.

Product design is sometimes confused 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, together to mass produce goods.

PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS: There are various product design processes and they are all focused on different aspects. The process shown below is "The Seven Universal Stages of Creative Problem-Solving," outlined by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnell. It helps designers formulate their product from ideas. This process is usually completed by a group of people, designers or field experts in the product they are creating, or specialists for a specific component of the product, such as engineers. The process focuses on figuring out what is required, brainstorming possible ideas, creating mock prototypes, and then generating the product. However, that is not the end of the process. At this point, product designers would still need to execute the idea, making it into an actual product and then evaluate its success by seeing if any improvements are necessary. The design process follows a guideline involving three main sections:
1. 2. 3.

Analysis Concept Synthesis

 The latter two sections are often revisited, depending on how often the design needs touch-ups, to improve or to better fit the criteria. This is a continuous loop, where feedback is the main component. To break it down even more, the seven stages specify how the process works. Analysis consists of two stages, concept is only one stage, and synthesis encompasses the other four. Analysis: Accept Situation: Here, the designers decide on committing to the project and finding a solution to the problem. They pool their resources into figuring out how to solve the task most efficiently.

Analyze:" In this stage, everyone in the team begins research. They gather general and specific materials which will help to figure out how their problem might be solved. This can range from statistics, questionnaires, and articles, among many other sources. Concept: Define: This is where the key issue of the matter is defined. The conditions of the problem become objectives, and restraints on the situation become the parameters within which the new design must be constructed.

Synthesis: Ideate: The designers here brainstorm different ideas, solutions for their design problem. The ideal brainstorming session does not involve any bias or judgment, but instead builds on original ideas. Select: By now, the designers have narrowed down their ideas to a select few, which can be guaranteed successes and from there they can outline their plan to make the product. Implement: This is where the prototypes are built, the plan outlined in the previous step is realized and the product starts to become an actual object. Evaluate: In the last stage, the product is tested, and from there, improvements are made. Although this is the last stage, it does not mean that the process is over. The finished prototype may not work as well as hoped so new ideas need to be brainstormed.
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. This product design attempts to solve a design problem. The design solution may be the development of a new product or developing a product that's already on the market, such as developing an existing invention for another purpose. Invention-push innovation happens when there is an advancement in intelligence.

 This can occur through research or it can occur when the product designer comes up with a new product design idea.

PRODUCT DESIGN EXPRESSION Design expression comes from the combined effect of all elements in a product.

Colour tone, shape and size should direct a person's thoughts towards buying the 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 direct towards the products success in the market. However, even within a specific audience, it is challenging to cater to each possible personality within that group. The solution to that is to create a product that, in its designed appearance and function, expresses a personality or tells a story. Products that carry such attributes are more likely to give off a stronger expression that will attract more consumers.

 On that note it is important to keep in mind that design expression does not only concern the appearance of a product, but also its function. For example, as humans our appearance as well as our actions are subject to people's judgment when they are making a first impression of us. People usually do not appreciate a rude person even if they are good looking. Similarly, a product can have an attractive appearance but if its function does not follow through it will most likely drop in regards to consumer interest. In this sense, designers are like communicators, they use the language of different elements in the product to express something. PRODUCT DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Product design is not an easy task. The stakeholders involved all demand something different from the product designer and from the design process. The manufacturer is concerned with production cost; in the end, the manufacturer wants an economically produced product. The purchaser looks at price, appearance, and prestige value. The end user is concerned with usability and functionality of the final product.

 The maintenance and repair department focuses on how well the final product can be maintained: is the product easily reassembled, disassembled, diagnosed, and serviced? Stakeholders' needs vary from one another and it is the product designer's job to incorporate those needs into their design. TRENDS IN PRODUCT DESIGN Product designers need to consider all of the details: the ways people use and abuse objects, faulty products, errors made in the design process, and the desirable ways in which people wish they could use objects. Many new designs will fail and many won't even make it to market. Some designs eventually become obsolete. The design process itself can be quite frustrating usually taking 5 or 6 tries to get the product design right. A product that fails in the marketplace the first time may be reintroduced to the market 2 more times. If it continues to fail, the product is then considered to be dead because the market believes it to be a failure. Most new products fail, even if it's a great idea. All types of product design are clearly linked to the economic health of manufacturing sectors. Innovation provides much of the competitive impetus for the development of new products, with new technology often requiring a new design interpretation.

 It only takes one manufacturer to create a new product paradigm to force the rest of the industry to catch up - fueling further innovation. Products designed to benefit people of all ages and abilitieswithout penalty to any groupaccommodate our swelling aging population by extending independence and supporting the changing physical and sensory needs we all encounter as we grow older. WHAT MAKES A GREAT PRODUCT DESIGN? FROM THOUGHTS TO REALITY

Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along and changes everything.

We have been very fortunate to live in this generation which has transformed the conventional design culture into a uber-geeky one. Companies are continually striving to create new products equipped with cutting edge technologies. Such nail biting competitions can only most often give way to innovation and progress. Today, we are on the verge of a technological breakthrough where our handheld devices are becoming faster than our desktops and laptops. Components are shrinking at a considerable rate and providing opportunities to design engineers to come up with lighter and more powerful products.

 This an example of how design and engineering is mutually evolving at an alarming rate. What is new today will become obsolete tomorrow. Amidst all this changes, how do the product designers and engineers make sure the product meets the expectations of the consumers and also keep evolving from time to time creating not just a renewable environment but a sustainable one. Design is not just about making things look pretty. It gives a product structure and function more than just form and style, but in a general sense however, it doesnt matter whether it is a product, a building or even a web application, unless the underlying structure isnt given enough attention (to the very last detail), the final product will ultimately be a failure regardless of how good it looks from the outside.

Product designing has been through a lot of transformations in the past couple of decades.

When the consumers were getting bored of conventional aesthetics, they needed something that would brighten up their living spaces and eventually making their lives a lot more interesting. The advent of newer and more durable materials made it possible for design engineers to think beyond the box and create products that would not only function with a high degree of perfection but also create products that would make users fall in love with them. @@@@@@@@