Anyone can design a product, but what makes an industrial designer is their ability to make a good product. An industrial designer's ability to create a good product starts with the design process. Often products are made that are low quality, dont function as intended, or only work for a small subset of people; the design process ensures this is not the case. The design process is an iterative process followed by industrial designers that ensures a final product is functional, aesthetically pleasing, and meets the needs of its intended users.
What are the steps of the design process?
The design process of any product begins with the research and analysis phase. In this phase the designer will conduct research and gather information about the intended user, market trends, and the competition. This involves analyzing customer needs, studying existing products, and identifying gaps in the market. To do this the designer will do multiple research methods, including but not limited to analyzing web articles, giving online surveys, speaking with professionals in the intended field, and testing existing solutions.
After the target audience and their needs have been identified designers will move on to the ideation phase. The goal of the ideation phase is to quickly generate many ideas for how to solve the problem. This can involve brainstorming sessions, sketching, and low-fidelity prototyping. The goal of this phase is to quickly get as many ideas out as possible. Often designers will try to think as far out of the box as possible so they may come up with the most creative solution possible, even if it seems like it might not work. The time for making sure 100% of the idea is feasible is for later in the process. The goal of ideation is creativity and it is important that the designer doesn't limit themselves to solutions they know will work.
The next step is concept development and refinement. Once a promising idea has been identified, designers will begin to develop the idea into a working concept. This is done through a combination of sketching, prototyping, and CAD modeling. The goal of this phase is to take the ideas created in the ideation phase and turn them into a real working prototype. Designers will make many different prototypes throughout this process, some focusing on the overall aesthetic and ergonomic factors, others will look at materials, colors, and finish texture, and others will focus on the nuanced details such as how and where a hinge will attach to the main body of a plastic part. At each point in this phase when a prototype has been made designers will do user testing in order to identify what aspects of the design are working and what aspects aren't working. This user testing will provide valuable information as to what changes to make as they are refining their design.
Once a final design has been chosen the designer builds the product in a digital software, factoring in all manufacturing considerations that must be made. This involves selecting the right materials, processes, and manufacturing partners to ensure high-quality production. Often small runs of the final production model will be made, so that final tests of the function, ergonomics, and durability can be run.
Finally, the product is launched, and user testing is conducted to ensure that it meets the needs of the intended audience. Feedback from users is used to refine the product further and make any necessary improvements, although, if the design process is followed properly there should be little need for improvements.
Overall, the goal of the design process is to identify the absolute best solution to a user's problem. In order to get to the best solution, you have to go through many bad solutions first. This is why the iterative design process is so important, it provides a roadmap for the journey through all the bad solutions and guides designers to the best solution.
What could be improved about the process?
I don't think there is much that could be done to improve the design process. The beauty of the design process is that although it is specific in the phases, it is flexible in all other aspects. Designers can complete each step in whatever way they feel is best and can move back and forth between phases as needed. A good product is defined by the people that use it and the design is a roadmap for identifying those people and identifying key ways to help them. No two design problems are the same and if anything was added to the design process then we would risk limiting creativity, thereby limiting the potential for finding truly the best solution.
-Dustin Rider
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