Introduction

It is fair to say that we live in an almost completely designed world. We are surrounded by a multitude of designed products, spaces, systems, services, and experiences that have been created in response to some physical, emotional, social, cultural, or economic need. In its simplest definition, product design is the design of products, but it also has a wider meaning that includes the generation of ideas, the development of concepts, product testing, and manufacturing or the implementation of a physical object, system, or service. The role of a product designer encompasses many disciplines, such as marketing, management, design, and engineering, and also combines art, science and commerce in the goal of producing tangible artifacts.