Product design is the process of creating, developing, and refining products that solve users problems or address specific needs in a given market. It involves a set of strategic and tactical activities, from idea generation to commercialization, used to create a product design. The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that people can use. The key to successful product design is understanding the end-user customer, the person for whom the product is being created. Product designers attempt to solve real problems for real people by using empathy and knowledge of their prospective customers’ habits, behaviors, frustrations, needs, and wants.
The product design process involves a systematic approach where product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible inventions and products. The process includes research, ideation, testing, prototyping, and usability testing. Good product design practices thread themselves throughout the entire product lifecycle, from pre-ideation user research to concept development to prototyping and usability testing.
Digital tools have facilitated the evolving role of product designers, allowing them to communicate, visualize, analyze, 3D model, and produce tangible ideas in a way that would have taken greater human resources in the past. Successful product design is essential in creating the initial user experience and product offering.
