Good product design is about more than looking “cool”; stylish products are not necessarily well-designed products.
An experienced designer may see no conflict between a product’s function and its appearance. On the contrary, designers often use a design’s outward functionality as the starting point for creating beautiful products that work perfectly.
Evidence from successful companies
If you need proof, just look at the most successful companies on the market. They demonstrate their success by pricing their products in line with their appearance and fine workmanship. Beyond that, we cannot forget that many of the most successful manufacturers trade on well-designed products.
Thanks to their knowledge of materials and methods, designers can quickly arrive at a specific product design, or by looking at “the big picture,” they create new opportunities with real solutions to real problems in an aesthetically striking process. A good designer will use the demands of a product’s function to create an individual, beautiful design that pleases both its owner and its manufacturer.
Of course, we need to remember that success does not come effortlessly, and product design is a resource that costs money. A genuinely good design may well be more expensive in the short term than a plain square box, but the return on investment will make it worthwhile.
Design is an investment
Designs are investments over time; you need to remember that. When a good designer hands you an invoice, that is an investment. It is good product design that will help your business grow, and good designs are long-lasting.
You don’t want to end up finishing your design after several rough iterations and only then hiring a good designer. In the early stages, you don’t want to waste your time and money on mediocre designers just to get everything done for a few hundred less.
The example of Apple and Jonathan Ive
A good example of great product design is the iPod / iPhone / iPad / iWatch line, created under the leadership of Sir Jonathan Ive, the world’s most iconic and famous industrial designer. It all started with the iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007, the iPad three years later, the iPad Mini in 2012 and finally the iWatch. The design is highly functional and stylish. These well-designed products certainly build a powerful brand while also bringing in enormous profits.
The cost of bad design
Even the design industry has its blunders. If you think good design is expensive, you must not be looking at the cost of doing it badly. The real trouble begins when design failures destroy products, or even entire companies. This is common knowledge, and we have seen it all in this field.
Unfortunately for some, a slide that starts at an elephant’s sensitive spot is still considered a remarkable idea.
So should product design be functional or stylish? A great design will be both.
Source:
Kamila Miller