Product Design: A Beginner’s Guide
Getting Started with Product Design: A Beginner’s Guide
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs
Dearest gentle reader,
Design is tricky. You are to go through others works for inspiration without lifting or directly copying them. Then you have to worry about the customer’s perspective, developers opinion and stakeholder’s vision.
Its a lot!. In this article, I highlight a few tips out of many that may help.
Tips on how to create effective design
1. Functionality
Functionality includes the structural integrity of the product, as it needs to be able to withstand everyday use without malfunctioning.
Designers must consider the ergonomics of the product. This means that the product should be comfortable to use and should be designed to fit the user’s body most importantly for products that are used for extended periods of time, such as furniture or tools.
Ergonomics also includes the product’s weight and size, as well as its overall shape and design.
2. Usability
A product needs to be easy to use and understand. The user interface should be intuitive and easy to navigate, so users can quickly find the information they need in different contexts, such as mobile devices and desktop computers.
A product needs to be usable by all its primary customers or end users, regardless of their physical, mental, permanent or temporary disabilities. As a designer, it is important to keep in mind that your product might land in the hands of users your research never tested for, but doesn’t mean it should be completely useless to those group of people.
Check out my previous article on accessibility here —
3. Aesthetics
A product should be aesthetically pleasing. A visually appealing and cohesive design that is consistent throughout will create a positive user experience. As designers, aesthetics should not be a far away word in your vocabulary because people will always want what looks nice.
Out of so many tea bags smudged up against each other in the mall, customers are always attracted to the pretty ones, with good visual design, first before reading the label to know if its good for them.
4. Brand Consistency
Product should reflect the brand’s values, mission, and visual identity. Your job as a designer is to find not just one way, but multiple ways to convey it. Multiple because people appreciate different things. Some appreciate and will readily notice color theory contrast, some appreciate idioms.
Do not stray from the brand’s vision because you think it looks better or nicer!.
5. User Experience (UX)
UX involves creating a positive experience for users while they are using the product. The moment they start to get frustrations, it is no longer effective.
But truth be told, there is no hundred percent bug free product. Which is why updates and rebranding exist. But products should solve users problems and not compound them.
UX should be intuitive, modern, and easy to use, so users don’t have to struggle to understand how to use the product.
“Intuitive design is how we give the user new superpowers.”
6. Principles of Design
As it is often said, it is better to understand the rules before breaking them. A huge part of understanding, is knowing when, why and how it is each principle is used the way it is. That way, if need be, you can explain why you broke them and how it made the design better.
principles of Design ( + How to Use Them )
7. Reiterate
Remember when we spoke about updates and rebranding?. No product is ever completely finished.
Which is why as designer, feedback is important to us. In fact, a design is effective only because a large number of users say it is!. And an effective design today, might become less so in a few days.
Iteration is key. Do not hesitate to go over that product, highlight users pain points and frustrations, through surveys, ratings, questionnaires and brainstorm new ideas to solve them.
So when next you see those ‘Rate us’ pop-ups, grumble less.
Little nuggets —
Common mistakes to avoid in product design
- Embrace feedback and implement it in your prototypes, continue to test even if you’re confident.
- Before you finalize your product design set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to check if your product meets business goals.
- Never create a product that’s similar to a competitor’s product without adding value
- When designing products, always remember that you are designing for users who are not you, this will help reduce personal biases and see from the User’s perceptive
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