How to Be a Better Product Designer: Insights from 3 Decades of Working with Product Designers
Great product design is about creating intuitive objects. A great product is appealing, easy to use, and may even change your customer’s life for the better.
As market research analysts for over three decades, we’ve worked with many product development teams, product designers, and creative teams to help create items people love. In that time, we’ve learned a lot about good (and bad) product design. Here are three insights to help you better meet your customers’ needs.
1. Watch the Product at Work
The look, feel, and of course, the latest and greatest features are all important parts of any product. But products are for people, and seeing how people interact with your product is an invaluable stage of the product design process.
Important creative design work happens in the office, but it also happens out in the field. New insights arise when designers see their product being used first-hand, as do new problems. The good news is you get to solve them before the product hits shelves.
2. Context Matters
Great products work precisely as they should in the right context, and context is what product designers need to understand. As a market research company, we’ve always had to consider the context when examining problems that customers have. The exact same can be said for designing a product. And of course, product design isn’t just about what you’re making. It’s about why you’re making it and for whom.
Consider:
- Emotional context: How does the product make the user feel? Trendy, happy, relaxed, focused?
- Environmental context: What sort of environment is your customer in when using your product? At work, at home, or out and about?
- Social context: Is your customer happy to flash it around (like a snazzy smart watch) or would they rather keep it discreet (hemorrhoid cream)?
The answers to these questions will help you make significant, informed decisions about what a product actually does and how it should be presented.
3. Remember Why You Design
Solving a problem is the most important thing when trying to create a great product. The first step is understanding what need you are filling. The challenge is keeping sight of the need you’re filling throughout every step of the design process: gaining multiple perspectives, testing the solutions, refining solutions based on your data and, if necessary, going back to the drawing board.
Designers get pulled in many directions throughout this process – by other departments, by the c-suite, and even by the data. In this case, going back to the “why” can be helpful.
We love working with designers to make products that communicate better, have the right placement, and ultimately provide a great customer experience. To learn more about our past results and how market research informs the product design process, contact us for a free consultation.
