This article introduces us to what is product design, as well as its concept and meaning.
If you are reading this article, you most likely work in the technology industry. You may currently have the opportunity or desire to participate in the creation of modern digital products. This article aims to give you an in-depth understanding of the role of product design in this process. The answer to what it means to be a product designer is constantly evolving. This is my attempt to convey the breadth, wealth and practicality of this underrated character.
product design
To understand what product design can do, we need to study the various design forms that make up excellent product designers, how they fit together, and what they can do when they work together when absorbed by Borg.
Interaction or UX designers study behavior patterns and explore the many ways that specific applications can address predetermined user needs. These people can create and iterate solutions faster than most people.
Graphic or visual designers do everything that people who are not designers think all designers are doing. Pixels! They form a dividing line between positive and negative spaces, creating exquisite masterpieces of color and depth. These designers use drawing tablets. They carry notebooks without cords. The visual designer puts the mimicry in iOS and then deletes it from iOS.
Action or animation designers are great designers. If you get bored with the smooth menu transitions or the amazing loading animations coming to life, then these guys are your credit.
User researchers are true advocates of user needs. They penetrate into the hearts of customers. They ask difficult questions and accept answers to all difficult questions. User research goes deep into everything. The user is always right.
A data analyst is a scientist in product design. They manage A/B testing and real-time products, collect and understand large amounts of data. They are the masters of correlation and causation. These are the people who announced the winning concept. The verdict came from a jury of millions of users.
Prototyping can quickly and easily create interactive experiences. This is an integral part of the product development phase. Prototypes allow us to test our ideas quickly and cheaply. Within days or even hours, from fifteen possible solutions to five to three.
In the end, business strategists answered the question “Why do we really do this?” They determine the business value behind each decision. For the ultimate success of what you build, you must understand why you want to build it.
Traditionally, these are personal roles. They are still. However, they are also all necessary components for a single product designer.
They are changing times. Especially in the technology industry, it is becoming more and more important to expand our skills as designers and embrace designers who were previously considered redundant. It doesn’t even exist yet.
Product design is the whole process
If you see the product designer as the person who makes your solution representative, please look at it again. She is there to help you identify, investigate and verify problems, and finally formulate, design, test and deliver solutions.
Provide solutions to product designers and they will tell you the problem.
Ask her a question and she will go to Google Analytics and collect existing user data. She will form a cross-functional team in all corners of the enterprise and brainstorm. She will then talk to User Research and develop a test plan. She will work late, and then make wireframes one by one, exploring a wide range of possibilities. She put together prototypes of the most interesting ideas and showed them to users for quick verification.
Then, she will provide you with several fully formed concepts that can perfectly solve current problems. Have a clear strategy to determine how to conduct A/B testing, when and what to conduct, and what build and release plan should be used in the end. She will support developers by publishing. She will work with the marketing department to ensure that the story is consistent with the product. After the first version is released, she will be very concerned about the product and will track data and metrics to continue to verify the design.
The product designer will design the solution until the problem is solved.
Product design is your brand
Your marketing team will bring you to all users around the world by carefully managing your messages, advertisements and communications. If your product does not fulfill your brand promise, then these users will not stay. Trust me this.
Product designers are the carers of the foundation on which the business depends. Ultimately, the factor that causes your failure is the difference between the promising products of your brand and the products offered by the products. This means that it is essential that your product design team work closely with your marketing team and understand their work.
About a year ago, we changed our name to Spotify. We redesigned the logo and consumer-oriented homepage, and redesigned the advertising style. We bid farewell to the graffiti that has existed for so long and adopted a new, people-oriented marketing language.
But by doing so, we realized how far away our products are from our new brand identity. Potential customers greeted this streamlined, cool identity at the door, but once they enter the club, everything looks and feels like a dirty dive. Therefore, we must spend the necessary time and energy to bring our product design into the 21st century. More here.
Product design cannot solve your problem
It will solve the user’s problem. In the best way for you. When I just said “you”, I meant your business.
A key aspect of product design is to understand the business value behind each decision. Data provides information for everything we do, user research checks our assumptions, and we measure our success through business and engagement metrics.
Product design is adaptive
This is a constantly evolving world. We all feel. What was extraordinary yesterday is ordinary today, and tomorrow is old. Product design is still trying to find its place in this highly reactive space. Hell, half of the platforms we are designing today did not exist a few years ago. You can be sure that there will be more in the coming years.
We need to remain flexible. We need to understand that design is eternal. The design is invisible. We need platform-independent thinking. Solve the problem once. Then apply the solution. Don’t design a solution for every platform.
I recently started working with the Spotify team on a weekly prototype research group. Every week, team members will introduce new prototyping tools or languages they have been trying. Then, we learn the basics together. We will spend the rest of the week in our free time so that everyone can show great content to others in the coming week. So far, this has been very interesting, and I found that one of the meetings every week actually made me look forward to it the most. I encourage all product design teams to consider following our leadership. This is an excellent way to evaluate the latest developments and continuously hone your Design Skillz.
Product design dissemination of knowledge
It must be so. As I said now, we have just started researching around product design. When I just said “we”, I meant product designers. Do you know who else does not understand product design? everyone.
Unfortunately, design has traditionally been regarded as pure aesthetics. They said: “Done beautifully.” This is the view we must change. We are the custodians of the user experience. Therefore, it is our solemn responsibility to educate the people around us, above, and below. This is what we can and should actually do.
When you hire a product owner, you might do this because this person is proficient in multiple disciplines; they understand some front-end and back-end coding, time, budget, business value, analysis, management, etc. In many ways, this is how you should consider hiring a product designer.
Of course, they may have a beautiful product portfolio, but can they play a key role in the entire product development process?
Good product designers will be proficient in animation, prototyping, coding, research, visual and interaction design.
They know when to provide wireframes and when to provide pixel-perfect models.
They know when to use animation and when to prototype.
They know how to communicate their solutions convincingly.
Product design is this
For several years, Spotify’s product design team has worked tirelessly to change (especially internal) the overall design, especially product design (mainly internal). From the very beginning, we have been a highly engineering-driven company, and we are not easy to waver in the face of firm will and opinions.
In my time here, we have grown from a team consisting mainly of visual designers to a team consisting of product designers, user researchers and prototype developers nearly five times.
We have moved from the last stage of the product development cycle (“buttons are needed for the new features we are about to launch”) to the forefront (“we want to study all possible ways to make users discover new music”). From rough consideration as a product beautician, to the most important curator-user experience.