What is product design?

Product design regularly blurs the boundaries between specialist areas such as lighting, furniture, graphic, fashion, interaction, and industrial design. It can encompass the design of products such as spectacles, scissors, cameras, fly swats, trash cans, vases, fruit bowls, telephones, door mats, clothes hangers, razors, bottle stoppers, kettles, cigarette lighters, fire extinguishers, cutlery, salt and pepper shakers, shelving systems, MP3 players and computers. From chairs and lights to consumer and environmental objects, product design is about enriching quality of life, whether in the home, workplace, or public domain. Product design is also a commercial activity that can help businesses by ensuring they create and sell products that appeal to, please, or challenge consumers. It can provide ways of answering unmet needs, improving function and appearance, or offer new ways of critically engaging with objects. Design is fundamentally about making things better: better for consumers and users, better for business, and better for the world.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain during the eighteenth century, saw the emergence of mass production, with the production of goods revolutionized by new manufacturing processes and the division of labour. Historically, products had been conceived and manufactured by craftspeople, and were often the work of an individual operating within an aesthetic tradition. Manufacturers rapidly identified the competitive advantages designers could bring to their products through divorcing designing and making, and positioning designers as the planners of a complex process. The full integration of design into the industrial production process saw product design become an identifiable discipline, one that has evolved to play an important role in the wider process of developing new products of every type. In some cases this is for high-volume (mass) production, but it can also be for smaller batch production or even one-off products, with designers re-engaging with the notion of neglected craft traditions.

The activity of product design is always relevant to any company manufacturing physical products, and especially consumer (or consumer-facing) products. The word “product” is widely, and confusingly, used to describe everything, from a life insurance scheme to a new savings account. But, wherever “hardware” and people interact you will find product design relevance. Perhaps less obviously, many manufacturers of industrial products benefit greatly from the integration of designers, design thinking, and design process into their normal development activities. This is especially true of any manufacturer whose products need an edge in a competitive climate.

Product designers are directly involved in the creation of a wide range of products. Clockwise from top left: Blanke Ark by Blueroom Designstudio, Innovativoli Industridesign & Kadabra Productdesign, 2008; Craftsman power tool by IDEO for Chervon, 2006; iPhone 3GS by Jonathan Ive and Apple Design Studio, 2009; Girls Ski Helmut by Per Finne for Kari Traa AS, 2008; My Beautiful Backside by Doshi & Levien for Moroso, 2008; Picturemate Printer by Industrial Facility with Epson Design, 2005; and retro design Fiat 500C by Roberto Giolito, 2009, alongside original 1957 model by Dante Giacosa.

For any company involved in the manufacture and marketing of products, the design of the product affects nearly every aspect of the company’s business – most obviously and directly on marketing, research and development (R&D), and new product development, but also upon logistics, distribution, sales, public relations (PR), and customer services. This is why senior management typically exerts such interest and influence over the process. Most crucially for a company, the design of its products is invariably the single most important manifestation of its brand.

Public services also make use of product design. This may involve the design of furniture, street furniture, interactive facilities (such as public information points), transport systems, and public service equipment (such as fire, police, and ambulance), as well as medical, health, and even military hardware. They may focus on improving learning, services, environments, or other facilities, or simply on enhancing the quality of life for the products' users or operators.

Product design is increasingly being seen as an important strategic tool in creating preference and deeper emotional values for the consumer. Its benefits for the consumer include products that are more usable, attractive, reliable, and cost-effective, and that enable greater emotional ties. These benefits may result in the consumer having increased loyalty to the product in question.

Types of products

Product design covers the range of different types of products outlined below. These classifications are not intended to be viewed as unique or complete, but as fluid and overlapping. Individual products may appear in one or more classification or cross the boundaries.

Consumer durables

The largest category of objects, by some margin, that a product designer is directly involved in is that of consumer durables. Such products cover a wide range of designed objects including lighting, domestic appliances, medical products, audio-video equipment, office equipment, automobiles, personal computers, and furniture. Consumer products need to work on a number of levels: they need to work well (function), they need to look good (aesthetics), and they need to be made available at a suitable cost (to both the client and the customer). A feature of many of these types of product is that they possess numerous components and are, therefore, designed by a team of people including mechanical and electronic engineers, ergonomists (who assess the fit between a person and their work, considering the job being done and the demands on the worker, the equipment used, how appropriate it is for the task, and the information used), and manufacturing specialists. A vital feature of modern consumer products is that they have an appropriate appearance and operability; they must also project the right brand values of the product and of the manufacturing (or selling) company.

Z. Island by Zaha Hadid Architects, 2006, an example of one-off artistic product design, is a radical innovation in kitchen design that features an intelligent environment for browsing the internet, watching television, or listening to music while cooking.

One-off artistic works

Some classic designed products are considered as much works of art as the works of a designer. The iPod, the Coca-Cola^® bottle, and the Volkswagen Beetle car are frequently cited examples in this regard. However, the creation of actual one-off, limited-edition designed products has been a growing area for product designers in recent years. Many designers regularly create one-off pieces for the yearly design shows at locations throughout the world, such as the Milano Salone, the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) in New York, and the London Design Festival. Within the confines of this type of product, appearance is the primary driver; functionality tends to be less important.

Folding Plug, designed by Min-Kyu Choi, 2009, 2010 Brit Insurance Design of the Year winner. This ingenious space-saving plug demonstrates how designers can transform an everyday impractical object into something more innovative.

Consumables

The next group of products is consumables, such as packaged butter, motor oil, bottled water, newspapers, or soft drinks. Here, the focus for the product designer is mainly in the design of the packaging, branding, and advertising campaigns. Product designers tend not to be involved in the design of the consumable itself—be that butter, oil or a soft drink – but in the product’s packaging, branding, advertising and marketing.

Stock items

Stock items (also known as commodities, or bulk or continuous engineering products) are raw materials used in the manufacture of other products. This includes metal rolled sections, rod and bar stock plastics, woven sheet and foil, and laminates. Product designers may occasionally be involved in the processes and manufacturing of these products, such as in embossing (the process of creating a three-dimensional image or design in paper and other ductile materials), surface texture, and finishes for other products.

Industry products

Industry products are items or assemblies that are bought by a manufacturing company for assembling into their own products. The appearance of this type of product is secondary to the primary requirements of functionality and performance. These products include ball and roller bearings, electric motors and controllers, circuit boards, crane hooks, and gas turbine engines for aircraft.

Industrial equipment products

Industrial equipment products are self-contained devices (i.e. machines) that perform a complex function and are intended for use within industry. Again, the appearance of this type of product is secondary to its functioning and performance. Among these types of products are industrial work-stations, machine tools, goods vehicles, earth-moving machinery, and passenger aircraft.

Perrier water bottle, an example of a consumable and packaging design.

Jet engine, an example of an industry product.

Airbus A380 passenger jet, an example of an industrial equipment product.

Special purpose products

Special purpose products include jigs, bespoke tooling, fixtures, special purpose robotics machinery, and specialized manufacturing and assembly machinery. This type of product is usually produced to order as single items (one of a kind) or a small series. The design and development of these products generally takes place specifically for one customer. Product designers involved in the development of this type of product need to be flexible, as the types of tasks change rapidly from one contract to the next. The majority of product design companies involved in this class of product are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Industrial plant

Industrial plant consists of industrial equipment products and devices to provide control and connections between them. The plant and devices are usually designed to special order and bought from specialist suppliers. This type of product typically incorporates other products, and the task of designing them, and their associated components, is usually the suppliers’ responsibility. Examples of this type of product include plant and components for water purification systems, electric power station equipment, and telephone networks.

A purified water-filling plant, an example of industrial plant.

KR5 Arc Hollow Wrist robotic arm from Kuka Automation + Robotics, 2008, an example of a special purpose product.