Why you should treat your digital product like a physical one
My pathway into a design career started at college, where I studied my A-Levels in both (physical) Product Design and Graphic Design, before ultimately choosing to study the latter at university.
College was an interesting time for me, as I was studying 2 design related subjects that I felt were on completely different ends of the scale.
Product Design had a traditional engineering edge to it and taught me how to design and craft something physical, whilst also considering the materials, construction and production techniques that go into a ‘real life’ product. It also taught me the importance of considering users through the use of ergonomic design. Making sure products not only function well, but feel good and are safe when using them.
Graphic design on the other hand, taught me how to craft something digital, non-physical — and how that can also be applied to other mediums, like print and web. It taught me the importance of visual communication, the power of perception and ultimately the impact that good graphic design can have on a brand.
Fast-forward to my career now and I find myself in a role that I feel is a combination of both of those subjects, digital product design.
With there being a lot of digital creative job titles out there today and a lot of crossover between them, I’ve observed on many occasions the discussions around what a (digital) Product Designer is and does, and how it differs from other digital creative roles such as a Graphic Designer or Creative Artworker. I’ve also seen debates around the subject of physical and digital product designers sharing the same job title of ‘Product Designer’ and whether or not that is a good thing.
Although this blog post isn’t going to solve or settle any of these debates, one thing I think we should be doing as digital product designers, is bringing ourselves closer to treating what we do as more similar to physical product design than to other digital creative roles. In my opinion, this does a much better job of explaining why digital product design is unique and different to other creative digital roles, and will possibly help shed some light on why we currently share the job title of ‘Product Designer’.
All of this has lead me to start thinking of my role and the products I design in a different way that I feel is beneficial and that I feel I should share. So here goes…
Here are my top 5 reasons for why you should treat your digital product like a physical one.
1. Both digital and physical products are made from ‘materials’.
When I was learning about physical product design, there was a great emphasis on understanding the materials that your product was going to be built with. When it comes to digital products, of course we don’t work with wood, metal or plastic, but our products are made out of something. Code.
In my career as a digital product designer, I have come to identify and treat code as the metaphorical wood, metal and plastic that digital products are made with. And like in physical product design, there are clear benefits when digital product designers understand more about the materials that the products they’re designing are made from.
In a similar fashion to physical product design, where an understanding of materials will give you knowledge on limitations, processes involved, cost etc. — learning (even just a bit) about code will bring you similar benefits. You’ll have a deeper understanding of your product and it’s limitations and a better time working with your developers.
In fact, something that has struck me as quite common in the digital world, is that product designers don’t spend enough time learning about code. This is in complete contrast to the world of physical product design, where a good understanding of materials is essential.
So if you don’t already, treat your digital product like a physical one and learn at least a little bit about the materials (code) that it’s made from. Trust me, it’s worth it.
2. Experiences are physical regardless
No matter if it’s physical or digital, the bottom line is that both disciplines are designing products that provide a user experience — and that experience is physical.
We might sometimes be too quick to separate digital from physical product design in our minds because when we imagine users interacting with a physical product, we think of users touching, holding, and interacting with the physical features of an object — which you can’t do with a digital product. However that is a quick judgement and I want to offer an alternative perspective.
It is true that you cannot ‘hold’ a digital experience. But to work a digital product, most of the time there has to be some form of physical interaction. Whether it be with a mouse, keyboard, or touch screen of a device. These physical interactions are the enabler to a digital user experience. They work together, not separately, to provide one physical user experience.
Think of the relationship between a mouse and navigating a website or digital product a bit like the relationship between a steering wheel and the car it’s attached to. Neither can really be present without the other. Together they provide the experience of driving a car.
The physical product design of a steering wheel alone won’t give you the entirety of a car’s driving experience, yet without it, the user won’t have a driving experience at all. Alternatively, you wouldn’t rate a car’s driving experience solely on it’s steering wheel design.
It takes a collection of things you physically interact with (and don’t interact with) to provide this experience — and in my mind, the output of an experience is the same across physical and digital product design, and they are very much connected.
Treat your digital product like a physical one by treating the entire experience as a physical one. Consider the physical interactions of your users when navigating your digital product.
3. Production lines = design systems
The benefits of a production line in manufacturing include efficiency and consistency. Using the same moulds, parts, processes and steps allow products to be manufactured more quickly and affordably, while retaining high levels of quality and consistency.
While in digital product design we don’t usually need to think about the manufacturing of our products, what we do have is design systems and brand guidelines.
Similar to the production line of physical products, these help us increase our efficiency by re-using common components and ensure that, especially among larger teams of designers, that we are all designing things in a consistent manner.
Design systems and guidelines are how we ‘manufacture’ digital products. Invest time in them.
Treat your digital product like a physical one, and consider the processes, efficiency and re-usability of the things you create.
4. Physical objects offer useful affordances for digital design
In short, an object’s affordances are it’s perceived usability. The handle-shape, opening and depth of a mug all indicate to a user how the object can be used and help suggest it’s intended functionality. These are what we call affordances.
In the digital world, we consider affordances slightly differently due to the fact that we don’t create physical objects. We use colour, shapes, layers and visuals to represent how or whether something can be interacted with and suggest what it might do.
Although our considerations and the way we create affordances differ between the physical and digital world, the concept remains the same. However, as physical products have existed for a lot longer than digital products have, we can draw a lot of inspiration from the physical world when looking at the affordances of our digital product.
Much like the physical world, in the digital world we work with ‘files’ that are organised into ‘folders’. Anything we don’t need goes into the (recycle) ‘bin’. These digital experiences have been made easier to understand for users, by creating a closer relationship to the physical world. We all know what a bin is for, and so it’s instantly clear to us what it might symbolise or be used for on a digital product.
Another old but great digital example is button design. By making a button look, behave and act almost as if it was a physical button, we can increase it’s perceived functionality and make it more identifiable to users that it can be interacted with.
These are just basic examples, but are important considerations we should take into our digital products to make them easier for people to use.
Treat your digital product like a physical one, and you will make your product more usable and predictable through clear affordances and perceived usage. Make your digital experiences more understandable and relatable through references to physical objects.
5. We work in a digital parallel anyway
A small, but final reason is that we work in a digital parallel.
Does the following definition describe a digital or physical product designer?
“Someone who through a process of research, testing and prototyping, designs products that engineers build, for people to use.”
It’s a broad definition and I’ll admit, it was written by me. But the reality is that Product Design is often defined in a way that could represent physical or digital product design.
From a top level, what we’re both setting out to achieve is the same thing. We simply just work with different materials that lead us down different disciplines and specialisms. Although our day to day world and roles may be very different, we shouldn’t dismiss the fact a lot of what we do, and the reason we do it, is very similar.
Treat your digital products like a physical ones and consider your design work from more perspectives than you did before.
