Reflection Point: Product Design
What is product design?
A product is a created object (a good, service, or other resource) that provides a benefit to someone (typically a customer or user).
Products Create Value
The reason why product design is so important in our society today is simple: People are amazing at spotting problems, but not so great at fixing those problems themselves. This could be because someone doesn’t have the right resources or expertise to solve a particular problem, or it could simply mean they do not have the time to dedicate to solving that problem, or maybe it is as simple as someone being too lazy to solve the problem themselves.
Products create value in their users’ lives either by alleviating problems or creating gains.
Products have two qualities that speak to users’ needs:
Tangible — e.g.(shoes keep my feet warm and provide support).
Intangible — e.g.(shoes can be a fashion item which connects the user to social groups, exhibits social hierarchy, or exudes the personality of the person wearing them.
The key to making any product successful is to make it useful, usable and desirable to the user.
The perfect example of a successful shipped product is the smartphone. I can confidently say that I use my phone religiously throughout the day. Whether that’s connecting with my social network, or searching something up on Google, checking my calendar, and keeping track of my finances. It fulfills both my tangible and intangible needs. The ability to organize everything I experience in a small handheld device is what makes this product not just good, but amazing.
So What Makes A Product Good?
- good products recognize a real need, and have a path to fulfill it
- good products respect their users’ time and effort
- good products are easy to learn and consistent in their use
- good products are adaptable
- good products during production are empathetic towards the environment and the users
The reason I consider my smartphone such a powerful product is because it satisfies my functional needs, but more importantly it satisfies my emotional needs. What do I mean by this? I have my smartphone by me at ALL times. As soon as I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is check my phone to see if I received any notifications. To be frank, it would be really difficult for me to spend one day without it. Does this mean I’m addicted? Probably. Would I be upset if I lost my phone? Definitely. I’ve established that I simply can’t live without it, and feel better in the having of it.
As a product designer, if you can fulfill the emotional need of the user you are designing for, then you’ve created a great product.
We all have products we feel emotionally attached to. Some people are shoe lovers, others are technology lovers, then we have the makeup junkies, and of course the car lovers. Not every product is meant to satisfy every user, but it’s important to know the target audience you’re after. Products become popular because they elicit to human emotional wants and needs, but they also adhere to the principles of product design.
Principles of Product Design
1. Usefulness is job #1 (value could be: functional, social, or emotional)
2. The experience “is” the product
3. Solve existing problems (they are much more valuable than solving new problems)
4. Look for investment — where are people already investing to solve this problem?
5. Model features on real artifacts (e.g. scotch tape on an iPhone to protect the screen)
6. Fit and finish matter — be precise and pay attention to detail
7. Release quality sets expectations (make sure the first release of your product is as of high quality of any other revision you make thereafter)
8. Release a smaller, better product
9. The last 10% is the hardest — do not lack certain areas of your design because it will show
10. Know who your real competitors are — both direct and indirect
11. Actual vs desired use — users are using the product you designed in the way that you intended
12. Personal value precedes social value
13. Users are not product designers (they can spot a problem, but it’s your job to fix it)
14. The behavior you’re seeing is the behavior you’ve designed for
15. Great products are focused on a single problem
16. Disruptive products look like toys
17. Positioning is crucial (aka how you communicate your product)
18. Product/market fit is when people sell for you (people tell their friends and families about how this product has impacted them in some way)
Product design is evolving; as new products are created, new problems arise. As the world expands and the technology market continues to grow, the role of a product designer will become indispensable. The skills of a product designer, such as creativity and critical thinking will be some of the top skills to acquire. Knowing how and why the design of a product is important, as well as being able to listen and connect with user needs and wants are what will separate a good product from a bad product and a good product designer from a bad product designer.
