Industrial Design Without Illusions: Busting Major Myths

From time to time, there is a discussion in the professional community about what is within the competence of industrial designers. A clear understanding of these boundaries is important not only within the industry, but also for customers and contractors so that they know what to expect from a specialist and what tasks can be assigned to him.

The fact is that the profession of an industrial designer is covered with a large number of myths and misconceptions, which often lead to inflated expectations and misunderstandings between customers, designers, and studios. In this article, we have collected and debunked the main myths, and we hope that it will help make interaction with industrial designers easier, more comfortable, and more effective.

This myth is as old as the industrial design industry. Henry Dreyfus wrote about this in his book “Design for People”. At the dawn of the development of industrial design, customers often came to him with a request to “add décor” to an already finished item, the design of which no one was going to change, even if it made it more convenient.

Customers who are not familiar with the essence of industrial design sometimes also follow this path. They see the industrial designer as the same decorator who can decorate the finished case with a pattern or color scheme. But this is only a small fraction of the benefits that can be derived from cooperation with an industrial designer. If you connect it at earlier stages, then the design will only benefit, as it will be integral, consisting of elements that reinforce each other. Shape, layout, color, finishing, textures, and textures — all this should work in one team, and the buyer will definitely notice it.

A designer can be involved in a project at almost any stage. If the image of the future product is still unclear, you can work on a conceptual design. If the layout of the internal elements is already clear, you can design a beautiful and ergonomic case around them. If the case is already there, the industrial designer can help with the placement of controls and indications to make it safer and more convenient to use the device. Whenever the designer starts working, the final product will always benefit due to the integrity of the image, thoughtful solutions and a pleasant combination of color, shape and texture of surfaces.

So hiring an industrial designer as a decorator is like hiring Picasso to draw a straight line. An industrial designer can give your product much more than color – use this if you want to stand out from the competition.

This belief is rooted in our Soviet past, when the economy was closed and planned, and the lack of competition made it possible not to think about improving everyday products. If the iron ironed laundry, it was considered good, even if it had an uncomfortable handle and a tight regulator.

Today, product design plays a crucial role in a competitive market. An industrial designer helps to create a reliable, user-friendly and attractive product, taking into account user experience, ergonomics, aesthetics and technological limitations.

An industrial designer understands why the handle is awkward and the control panel is complex, and thanks to specialized knowledge and extensive experience, he is well versed in aesthetics, intuitiveness and functionality.

An engineer and a designer complement each other: an engineer is responsible for reliability and manufacturability, while a designer is responsible for convenience, visual perception, and interaction logic.

It is in their union that a high-quality product is born. But an engineer does not replace a designer, and a designer does not replace an engineer — both specialists are necessary for a full-fledged result.

This myth echoes the previous one and is associated with inflated expectations for industrial designers. Customers often want to see a team of universal specialists who solve both design and engineering problems at the same time, and at the same price. As a result, they do not expect 3D models and design presentations, but working 3D models and documentation that can be immediately sent to production.

In practice, this almost never happens. Designers take into account production constraints, but it is the design engineers who turn the design into working 3D models, taking into account all the technological and design nuances. As part of the author’s support, designers help to preserve the quality and integrity of the image laid down during the development of the design.

It is worth noting that there are rare specialists who combine design and engineering work. Most often, this either reduces the quality of one of the areas due to the lack of deep specialization, or occurs in the work on a narrow, well-known typology of products. There are also design offices that are ready to develop a turnkey product, from idea to implementation, but they are not always the best solution for the project.

The best practice is to involve engineers in design approvals as early as possible and keep them involved throughout the project. This helps to identify difficulties that could otherwise delay production for weeks, and sometimes months. Designers are guided by global technological capabilities, and engineers know the real capabilities of a particular production, with which they will then have to cooperate.

This myth is especially interesting, since everything is exactly the opposite here. An expensive product can be of interest to the buyer for many reasons – as a status symbol, thanks to premium materials, advanced features, high quality, reliability or superior performance… But it is much more difficult for mass products that we use every day to stand out. And high-quality design can make a product noticeable and desirable without increasing its cost.

In addition, in the luxury segment, the margin is very high, while for cheap products it is not so significant – here they take volumes. Be that as it may, any manufacturer is interested in people being loyal to their products and using them without complaints about convenience or appearance, so working on the design leads to sustainable sales and saves money on returns.

Industrial design is not an art. Each element is not chosen by chance, and the designer can justify each decision. Therefore, it is wrong to treat this issue subjectively, as a matter of “taste”. Discussion of design should always be based on arguments and arguments, both from the customer and from the designers. Otherwise, it will simply not be possible to agree.

It is important to remember: a designer makes a product not for himself, but for the target audience (TA) he is aimed at. Therefore, during the development process, he looks at the task with different eyes — the eyes of a potential buyer. The better the designer has studied the target audience, the higher the chance of success of the product. This is one of his most important skills.

Another important skill of an industrial designer is not just to offer a solution, but to justify it, to describe the advantages in understandable words. And in order to have them, the project must be developed with a bias towards reason and logic, even in matters of aesthetics.

Manufacturers often underestimate the importance of good design, hoping to compensate for it with a powerful marketing campaign. The problem is that design can work on many rungs of the Hunt ladder at once, which displays the stages of the user’s progress to the moment of purchase, and most importantly, determines the final choice of the client.From two products equal in price, functionality and quality, the one with the most attractive appearance will win.”

You can invest millions in advertising, drag a user to a website or store, but at the last moment he will choose a competitor simply because it looks more attractive or easier to use. That is, you convinced him that he needed a kettle, but you did not convince him that it was your model that was needed. Good design helps to avoid such a situation.

And it is also important to remember that any product has a design, no matter whether it was done purposefully or not. It’s just that if it was not done, then it is most likely bad.

The Hunt ladder (recognition ladder) is a marketing model that describes the customer’s journey from complete ignorance of the product to its purchase. It was developed by marketer Ben Hunt in 2010.

For example, the train control panel is a utilitarian element designed for professionals. And the manufacturer can give up on its design: the driver will figure it out on the spot. But it is the narrow specialists who have a particularly high cost of error. If the design of the control panel is confusing and not ergonomic, then in the event of a difficult situation, delay can cause accidents, injuries or even death of passengers or the driver himself.

Or take the design of a DJ console. The quality of a DJ’s work directly depends on the logic, clarity and ergonomics of his controls. If they are inconvenient, no one will buy the model, even if the “filling” is the most advanced. Complex niche products, on the contrary, are very demanding on design — it will be evaluated by professionals who know exactly what they want.

Often, manufacturers think that it is enough to involve an industrial designer in the project once, get sketches or a 3D model, and this is the end of the cooperation. But, since the product always has a design and does not disappear anywhere, ideally, ideally, it accompanies the product from the idea to the market.  This practice is called “author’s support”.

A holistic image of a product exists only in the designer’s head, no matter how well and in detail he talks about it personally or in presentations. By completing or redoing the design on its own, the company runs the risk of missing important details and losing an attractive, cohesive image and lowering the perceived quality of the product. The ideal strategy is to trust specialists at this stage, without being distracted from business processes.

Releasing new models for a different audience and in a different size – you need a designer. Rethinking and modernizing the appearance is also a designer. Because design is not a one-time investment, it is a process that ultimately leads to an increase in user loyalty, image success and stable, long-term sales.