Today industrial designing is as challenging as exciting. Apart from the sophisticated designing, basic sketching, prototyping, and testing, a great industrial designer should be able to address the preferences of the customer and he must evolve with the changing times. Whether it is a circuit board, a gas turbine, a car, or furniture every product out there started with a design. Essentially anything we hold, see and use has a design at its core. The next big thing that is going to take over the market is ‘product design.’
In the age of smarter customers, industrial designers need to be aware of the latest trends to ensure they have a successful product. Bringing successful products to the market is a result of teamwork. Industrial design companies need to focus more on what to design and what the features of a winning product will be. Today we will explain the things designers need to pay attention to produce ingenious designs.
During the good old days a designer would receive a product that needed to be designed, they would create a few sketches and one of them would be off to production. And then, companies started to realize that they needed to provide the best function and experience in their products to compete with the ever increasing competition. This is when more and more designers began heavily focusing on how to design easy-to-use, cost effective and functional products with iterative testing and design.
Incorporating these design principles allows us to be an essential part of the product development process. It can help you to understand the product in a more thoughtful way and use it more often too. It also adds far more value as compared to just a quick design.
Emotion is paramount – the new product design trend
Product designing is much more than just creating a specific function for your product. Today customers are prone to hundreds of products and it is pretty easy that they will be attracted to a new product. Let’s put this short, consumers are fickle. Product design companies can only stand out and grab attention by providing ingenious products. The products must be able to win the hearts and minds and connect with the target at a personal level.
Usability and market research
While usability majorly focuses on what people do and analyzing their observed interaction and behavior with the product, market research focuses on how a user feels, views, and opinions about different features. It should be an extension of a customer’s personality to grab their attention. Through its design, every product should tell a story. Make sure it addresses the needs of the specific target. For example, a product must be sleek, handy, cute, comfortable and what else colorful and bright maybe? The more research you do, the better you will understand the needs and problems of your target market.
The product must be energy efficient
We all are aware of the damage that we have done to our planet earth. The only way we can save our planet is to introduce energy-efficient products. Secondly, only those products will survive the future will be energy-efficient products. During the production, most of the manufacturers are concerned with the energy consumption of the products whereas consumers are aware of the carbon footprints and the power bills.
Consumers are highly informed and tech-savvy, and they perform an in-depth analysis of the product before they make the purchase decision. They don’t make the purchase based on ‘compare-prices-buy-the-cheapest’ mindset. Therefore, industrial design companies must develop products that are energy efficient.
Big data is the new normal
In 2020 big data will transform industrial design companies too. According to research by 2020 the internet will link more than 50 million devices while enabling the exchange of data in the most secure way, which has never been available before.
As expected, all these devices will transfer a huge amount of data, which is great for designers. It will help designers to get instant feedback about the design flaws or other aspects. Now designers can leverage this invaluable data to make appropriate improvements and changes in the design.
Holistic approach
Apart from the traditional look and feel, designers need to find a way to articulate value. They need to figure out new and innovative approaches to implement in a project.
If the sell-through of your product is low, then you have to rethink your strategy. You will need to understand consumer’s thoughts and comments on your product so you can utilize these shortfalls to design a better product.
The bottom line is, the world of industrial design continues to innovate and grow. The smartest consumers are looking for the most effective products, while manufacturers demand cost-efficient designs. Only incorporating the latest trends and tools will help designers to create great designs that will leave a lasting impression on the target audience for years.