The beauty of product development lies in its innovation. Take a look at any industrial design company’s portfolio, and you’ll observe countless instances of designers going above and beyond to create products that are original and incomparable to their competitors. But originality aside, if you were to take a good look at every single successful product on the market, you’d actually find that these devices have much more in common than it seems. That is to say, they all share the same basic anatomy.
Essentially, every product is composed of the same trio of elements- form, function, and value. Each aspect is integral in its own right, which is why the end goal for designing profitable products must always entail using ingenuity and inventiveness to evenly fuse them together. This creates a product that the design industry often refers to as ‘well balanced’, meaning there is no area between the device’s form, functionality, or value that is lacking in quality or presence. Ultimately, it is this balance that separates the poor product designs that don’t sell from the designs that dominate market segments and perform incredibly among end-users.
For industrial designers, finding this balance is actually quite intuitive. In other words, our experience, knowledge, and specialized skills have made it so we deeply understand what it takes to produce designs that flawlessly integrate and emphasize a product’s form, function, and value. As such, for business owners who are looking to develop their own products, outsourcing this project to an industrial design company is an incredibly appealing option. For example, at DesignStein Studios, we offer a full array of industrial design services with the intent of always manufacturing a product for our clients that is as functional as it is valuable and visually appealing.
But what exactly does function, value, and form mean in terms of having a balanced product? Let’s take a quick look at the role each element plays in optimizing a device’s design.
Form – Design Language
Form and design language pertains to the aesthetics of a product. As the saying goes, first impressions matter, and more often than not, an end user’s first impression of a product will be its form and design language. This is why aesthetics in product development are so important, as these users are traditionally drawn to products that resonate with them in some sense. If this area is not adequately focused on by designers, one can expect to find a product that is visually uninteresting, derivative, or otherwise unattractive. Instead, the goal for designers is to draw upon their creativity to render a stunning and overall desirable look for their products.
For most industrial designers, including us here at DesignStein Studios, this means experimenting with a design’s form, materials, color palette, design language, and more. Through this, we are able to narrow in on what aesthetic choices work well together given both the product itself, the brand, and the predilections of the market to formulate a design that is as cohesive as it is appealing in the eyes of consumers.
Function
Successful products serve a purpose. They solve a problem, and that is where function comes into play. Here, function refers to the mechanisms of a product and how well they work to achieve that purpose. For example, an alarm clock is designed to prevent oversleeping by waking up users. How exactly these devices are designed to carry out these functions may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the original intent is all the same. In the end, whether or not the functionality of these different alarms can be considered successful depends on how well they fulfill their purpose and wake up users from their rest.
Plainly put, functionality is a crucial element of any design as the market does not favor products that fail to complete their purpose. This is why it is so important for designers to spend sufficient time honing in and perfecting the working components of their project’s design-build. For us here at DesignStein Studios, this means carefully rendering our designs with function in mind as well as intensive prototyping to ensure their configurations are up to par and working properly.
Value
Of all three elements, value may be the most subjective. Essentially, it signifies the priorities target users have when shopping for new products. For example, some users are more drawn to products with a luxurious feel, while others rather purchase items with simple functions that are easy and straightforward to use. Every user has their own personal, unique checklist when it comes to evaluating a product’s value, which is why it’s important for designers to get into the mind of consumers and figure out what ‘value’ means to them. This is the trick to boosting profitability- catering to demands on the market so an increased number of users find your product appealing. After all, it would be rather difficult to effectively market a product perceived to have little to no worth.
But how does one exactly narrow in on something as broad as value? As an industrial design company, DesignStein Studios accomplishes exactly that with the assistance of market research. Specifically, we utilize market research to analyze consumer trends via surveys and user reviews to realize what it is our target demographic seeks from their products. We also observe the competitive landscape to discover what values our competitors are failing to meet so we may fill those gaps and appeal to a larger audience. Ultimately, it is our job as designers to listen to the demands of our audience and allow that information to influence our design choices. The result is a product catered perfectly to the tastes of the market.
DesignStein Studios Creates Well-Balanced Products
As you can see, successful products are not created by accident. It takes incredible effort, conscious decisions, and careful planning to turn a simple idea into a product with a well-balanced design. Fortunately, DesignStein Studios is equipped with all the resources necessary, from tools, experience, services, and much more, to flawlessly integrate form, function, and value to achieve that coveted balance. After all, this is the ultimate key to market success and if there is one thing DesignStein has always been committed to, it’s engineering designs our clients are proud to sell and call their own.
This blog is brought to you by DesignStein Studios, one of the top industrial design companies in California. Give us a call today at 714-375-4846 for more information on how we turn your product ideas into reality.