Product Designers oversee the design process from beginning to end with a long view that blends the needs of users with the priorities of the business. There is a lot of overlap between product design and user experience design.
What is Product Design?
Product Designers consider the business aspects of the project such as cost, process, and brand identity in addition to the experience and behavior of users. The position requires a combination of design and business skills. Many job descriptions for Product Designers and UX Designers are similar.
Day to Day Tasks for Product Designers
Like UX Designers, Product Designers conduct research to learn about the users’ journey. They analyze the data and use it to come up with user personas, scenarios, and maps. They use these tools to generate ideas for the design and then create wireframes from those ideas. They test the design for usability and update the product until it is passed on to programmers. Product Designers also keep in touch with customers and stakeholders to keep them in the loop, as well as other members of the business side of the team.
Product Designers are concerned with the appearance, functionality, and quality of the product they are assigned to work on. They strive to create successful products that meet the needs of customers and that sell well.
Product Designer Job Description
The job description for a Product Designer may look like this:
- Take ideas and concepts and turn them into useful products
- Design products that are easy to use and elegant
- Contribute to the process as part of a team
- Give and receive quality feedback
- Oversee the design process and work with engineers, researchers, and marketers to establish long-term goals for the product.
Skills Product Designers Need
Some qualities that successful UX Designers exhibit are empathy, curiosity, humility, attention to detail, meticulousness, organization, attentiveness, and the ability to communicate well. UX Designers need to imagine themselves in the users’ position so they can determine the best solutions for the particular problem. Product Designers also need a background in business as well as some experience in project management. A Product Designer often starts out as a UX Designer and then moves into a position of more responsibility for the design project as a whole.
To be a successful Product Designer, you need to love solving problems and puzzles and be fascinated by people and why they do what they do. You need to be good at collaborating with others and working as a team to figure things out. You need to conduct research, analyze the data, and write reports as well as present your findings at workshops and meetings. You also need to be able to create wireframes and prototypes of websites and products. A good head for business is a plus and some leadership experience is helpful.
Where Do Product Designers Work?
Although more UX Designers are employed in computing and IT than in any other industry, the field continues to grow and spread beyond its starting point. Some of the areas where UX Designers work besides computers and information include finance and insurance, consulting, education and testing, government and military, healthcare, retail, media, advertising, telecommunications, business, entertainment, aerospace, automotive, and non-profit groups.
Most Product Designers work full-time and are employed in larger companies. These companies have been around for a while and have established products. Because of past successes, the companies are stable and take a longer view of product development with a slower, more deliberate pace.
What Apps and Tools Do Product Designers Use?
UX Designers use different types of software in their work. These tools allow them to design mobile apps and websites often without having to do any coding. Some of the most common are listed below.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is a design tool based on vector graphics that allows you to create digital designs for everything from mobile apps to websites. XD is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and works well with other CC apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Animate. There are many repeating features that make your workflow move faster, and XD also includes collaboration features that make it easy to share and test prototypes. You can run XD on both macOS and Windows.
Sketch
Sketch is a Mac application that doesn’t work on Windows. You can use vector editing tools or design at the pixel level. It allows you to scale to any screen size and speed up your workflow with mathematical shortcuts. As with XD, there are repeatable components and you can organize your design so everything is easy to find. Sketch recently added real-time collaboration, so now it is easier for a team to work together, and you can also create libraries of the elements the team is using. There are also many plugins available to customize your workspace.
InVision
InVision works to support the design process from brainstorming and collaborating with Freehand, or prototyping with Cloud, or designing with Studio. You can create design libraries for the team. InVision works on the web, Android phones, and iPhones.
Figma
Figma is another design application. It includes FigJam which provides an online whiteboard for collaboration to let your design team plan, define, and workshop together. You can use the pen tool for vector graphics or plugins like an instant arc design. Auto Layout moves and stretches items automatically, and Figma makes the work move along efficiently. Figma runs on a browser so it will work with macOS, Windows, or Linux systems.
How to Learn UX Design
A common career path to product design is through UX design. If you would like to learn UX design to switch to a new career, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn XD, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and will cover the design process and software in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to take UX design classes and start a new career. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design coursesand attend from anywhere. Find UX bootcamps in your area and get started in a new direction today.