Product Design and its Components
Product Design and its Components
The expression of product design is the set of its layers, combined and covering a wide range of engineering, functional, ergonomic, visual, production, economic and marketing characteristics. The initial contact with the product is carried out with the help of perception, because the senses channel the connection between “consumer” and “product”. Primary communication, which reaches the mind extremely quickly, stimulating it to recreate organic sensations and impressions in the user, based on the external product features. In the foreground are visual perceptions and physical interaction, giving rise to a number of mental needs for the product, its functions, the specificity of its shape, types of materials, textures and colors. The clear and concise sequence in the operation of the product, covering a certain algorithm of actions, which is a prerequisite for unburdensome communication with the user. This is expressed through contact with the general shape of the product and its dimensions, the materials from which it is made, as well as the subsequent interaction with the functional zones and the surfaces and volumes characteristic of its ergonomics. The so-called “visual ergonomics” should not be underestimated, which influences consciousness and is the key to actions leading not only to proper operation, but also to consistency in the user’s thoughts and behavior towards the respective product. Visual contact must adequately process the information areas in a specified logical sequence so as not to create a burdensome effect on the psycho-physiological perceptions of the customer. The effects of the product arise from the following: main color or a combination of several colors; fonts, separate word combinations and terms; symbolic designations and pictograms, as well as a number of other accents building the overall interaction with the product. It should be noted that even within the target group of profiled customers, the challenge of taking care of the entire palette of possible personalities that it is composed of is unattainable. This implies a more detailed analysis in the product design process, which should lay a sustainable foundation for the subsequent product development. When the necessary attention is paid to detail and all the specifics of the process are understood, passing each of its stages and substages is relatively seamless, with the help of a sequence of actions and a smooth transition between them; regardless of the emerging issues and obstacles that are an integral part of building the product. In the case of presented product developments, visible with their cycle of phases and creation process, this must be well thought out as an action by those developing and, accordingly, sharing it, for the purpose of presentation – at each stage and substage. Users will begin to perceive the product during its raw design phase, and subsequently during its development process. To a large extent, this will be a prerequisite for collecting impressions and feedback, but it will also affect the user assessment, resulting from initial impressions, which need not so much refutation as a good justification from the product developers. With such visibility and demonstration of the way the overall product design process takes place, a balanced distribution of the burden in user expectations is necessary, reasoned and not burdensome for both parties – developer and customer/viewer. Of course, the choice to share the process is a decision of the product designer, who plays the complex role of designer, developer, communicator and organizer. This approach can lead to both potential success and the beginnings of a predetermined market failure of the product. Therefore, the approach, judgment and accumulated experience are important in making such decisions. In these early stages, only the beneficial effect of this presentation of the phase in which the product development is located must be filtered and distinguished – from the initial impressions of the market environment, the feedback from the target group of customers and potential buyers. The product designer needs to strive for his own methodology, to defend it with relevant arguments, to have his own approach, a sustainable philosophy of thinking and a way of working that generates high added value and potential for market realization. Product design is a labor-intensive process that is validated by the accumulation over the years of skills, experience, flair, focus, and perseverance, but not least by following its unified rules and algorithm of stages and substages.
“Good design is as little design as possible” – Dieter Rams
