What makes a product great? Is it the quality or the utility of the product? It could be the way it is made, or maybe it is the product itself. But as product designers, we’d like to argue that it is the design of a product that makes it great. Of course, the parts and the way it is assembled matter, but if the product design is faulty, it loses its utility and quality. The whole thing becomes pointless. It is the design that makes or breaks that particular product.
If we agree that product design is the most important thing, what makes a design great? Great design is simple, easy to use and creates a sense of purpose, but above all, it just has to work well.
On paper, product design feels straightforward, you think of a concept, you execute it, and finally, you perfect it into a product, but it is a long and tedious process in which design research is a very crucial but ignored step in creating the optimal user experience.
Design Research is a broad term. It is mainly used to describe the process that designers use to better understand the needs and desires of their target audience. It is a customer-focused approach to your product.
Though very similar in some aspects design research differs from market research. Market research is much more quantitative, whereas design research focuses on the ‘why’ more. Why does a customer behave the way they do while buying something.
The three most common types of design research methods are
- Primary: This is where a design team interacts directly with its audience. This is the most essential method since you derive information directly from the source.
- Secondary: When the team uses existing sources like books, articles and the internet to support existing research. They use this to create a stronger case for their primary research
- Evaluative: Evaluative research looks at a specific problem to evaluate usability and interaction. The team could make a customer use their product and ask them to interact with it. This type could be further divided into summative and formative.
Design Research is what makes a design better, makes it great. It allows the designer to create based on cold-hard facts and not assumptions, in turn, making the execution extremely feasible and cost-effective. Once you have a layout on exactly what you are trying to achieve, this makes the execution of the design less arduous and time-consuming.
This is where companies like Future Factory come in, with their brilliant design research, it is possible to create great products. Especially in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, where industrial design has become extremely popular. But this is not just about popularity product design companies in Bangalore are revolutionising the design industry. They deliver world-class designs that are feasible and impeccable in execution. A value-centred mindset is vital for the product since it needs to be cost and time-efficient, and that is exactly how these companies deliver!