Designer WHO? What exactly is Product Design
- Roopali Pankaj
- May 7, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: May 27, 2023
Back in 2001, when I got into the top design school in India, Industrial Design Centre (IDC) IIT BOMBAY for my master's course in product design, people around me hardly understood what exactly I would be doing there and afterward. I used to explain the role of a product designer enthusiastically. Now in 2017, when I tell people that I am a product designer, I can still notice a BIG question mark on their face
'What exactly is product design ???'.
Some of them care to ask more, while some just say okay.
One more incident I would like to share. A few years ago, when I was visiting my Sister, her domestic help asked
me, “Didi aap kya karate ho?” (What do you do?) When I replied that I was a product designer. She said, “Oh, Kapda banate ho?”(Oh, you make clothes) Design is so much synonymous with Fashion. In our society, design is either Fashion or graphics, or architecture.
I think we product designers deal with designing a wide range of products used in our day-to-day life, but we have failed to create awareness in
society about what our role is. What do we do when we say that we design products?
My First Design in the Market 20 years ago (Godrej Washing Machine)
But I am glad our young generation is keeping pace with the world. I receive many calls from parents whose children want to pursue careers in different design streams like the product, user interface, automotive, toy, furniture, interior, and accessories.
They are concerned about what the scope would be in the future.
Better late than never, here I am using this platform to connect with more people in our society, sharing some of my experiences about my profession and ‘Design’ in general. I will be happy to answer your queries regarding ‘Design’. I feel that Design is making changes in things around us to make the world a better place. An architect designs a building as per the client's need, available construction technology, site climate, budg
et etc.; a product designer designs the product keeping in mind the end user, ease of use and maintenance, available manufacturing processes, materials, budget, etc. The design process is almost similar. The most important tool that designers use is ‘Visualisation.’Concept Sketching basic Visualisation technique
While architecture firms design different spaces like residential, commercial, or public spaces, product design consultancy can offer services for a wide variety of products right, from consumer products to huge industrial equipment. During my industry experience, I got the opportunity to work on small products like soaps, packaging for shampoo, and medicines, to medical equipment like patient monitors and dental X-ray machines. Many companies have their in-house design department, where a team of designers is dedicated to constantly improving the user experience of their product range.
The design team is involved from the inception of the product, like deciding the requirements of the product till the actual manufacturing of the product begins. There are many stages involved during the whole process, which I will be talking about in detail later on. During the whole process, the design team needs to interact with many other teams like end-user, marketing teams, engineering teams, model-making teams, manufacturing teams, etc.
I hope that now you get some idea about what product design is…
Please post your comments and queries.
These links will be helpful to get some more information.
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