Industrial design products are everywhere, in fact you probably are using a laptop or mobile to read this article. If you need to design an industrial product for your company, discover here what are the types that exist and which one suits the needs of your company.
What do we mean with industrial product design?
There is a big confusion around industrial design, since there are many branches out there with tons of names and people who work on them. But don’t worry, we want to clarify that for you in this article.
According to Core77, industrial design could be categorized in 4 areas: Responsible design, Experimental design, Discursive design, and Commercial design.
Responsible design is related to social work, that is, providing devices that could serve a community with low resources. The aim of this design isn’t to get profit, but to help people to meet a need. Experimental design looks to explore and try different possibilities, mostly for research projects. Discursive design refers to objects that send a concrete message. They are not for selling in the market, they are intended for exhibitions or movies.
Finally, commercial design is what we can usually find in any store, market or ecommerce, products or devices that have a functionality and that customers need for their daily activities. In this case, we are talking about industrial product design.
Compared to the categories mentioned above, the industrial design products not only aim to generate well-being to the people, they are created because they are profitable.
There is a market that desperately needs new products, and there are also competitors. If you need to launch a new product, you need to investigate your competition, how their products perform and how you can stand out with the best industrial design products.
If you are a smart CEO or entrepreneur, you will do your best to create a design that attracts and hypnotizes your potential clients.
Types of industrial product design
All industrial design products start with an idea, if this is poorly developed, the final result will be a disaster. That’s why it is necessary to carry out a prototyping process with a company specialized in hardware developments. When you test a product before launching it to the market, you will get insights on how to make it better.
Let’s check some of the industrial design categories:
- Toys design
- Transportation design
- Footwear design
- Household appliance design
- Electronic product design
- Smart product design
- IoT product design
Is your company in the toys industry, or maybe IoT products? You need to define where your idea fits and if that category has many competitors. Since you want your company or business idea to be the best in the market.
Investigate famous industrial design products, who created them, their performance, cost, and what are the top companies in industrial design products. That way you will have information to improve your idea before making it a reality.
Let’s say you want to create an IoT product. There are many applications for them. Is it for the health industry, mobility, or maybe tracking? Consider all these aspects and establish your budget, work team, and technology you may use. Then it is time for prototyping.
Industrial design prototyping
Industrial design products are not produced and launched after the first trial. If that was the case, many products would fail and explode in the houses, offices, and hospitals. Are you going to take a risk like that?
The first smartphones in the market needed thousands of hours for testing, and they still do. Your device may have the best design, but it doesn’t guarantee its performance. So, you need to design prototypes that can be tested with low-quality materials. This won’t be the final version of your industrial design product, this will be like a cheap version of your product that can be used by some people, and that prototype will give you feedback on potential flaws and strengths.
Industrial design product development
Another aspect of industrial design is product development. Once you get a design you like, and a functional prototype with the proper adjustments, you may advance to the next stage, that is, developing your product.
Industrial design product development gets to the stage after the prototype has been tested. This is the moment you have been waiting for. You started with an idea, then, this was turned into an industrial design. Maybe you tested a few prototypes to confirm the performance and interest of potential customers or investors. Now, you will be able to manufacture your product with the specifications and materials you got in the final industrial design product.
You can either manufacture hundreds of units that will be sold to some customers, or start the mass production for the market. This stage depends on your budget, marketing and business plan.