Designing products people want to buy isn’t easy. It’s a complex process that takes time, research, creativity, and experience. However, following a few product design principles can drastically improve your success rate.
We’ve put together a list of must-dos that will help you throughout the entire product development cycle, keeping your project on track and enabling you to remain focused on your end goal – creating products people want to buy.
Know Your Target Audience
The most important thing, before you even begin designing, is to know your target audience. By this, we mean to do actual research. Don’t make assumptions based on your experience or preconceptions. This is where unconscious bias takes over, and bad products are born.
Collect data on consumer trends, popular products, potential competitors, and challenges your target audience wants to overcome. You may even discover problems people didn’t know they had.
If you know your audience inside and out, the chances of creating a product they will buy increase exponentially.
Inspire Transparency & Collaboration
Whether you’re working with a third-party or in-house team, you need to breed values of transparency and collaboration. Transparency empowers everyone to share their honest opinions and give genuine feedback without fear of repercussion.
Additionally, collaboration inspires the evolution of ideas. Rather than an individual coming up with an idea and protecting it as their own, they’ll be open to working alongside others to evolve the idea into the best product it can be.
The best product design companies have this nailed down.
Run Tests With Real End Users
If your desired target audience is 18 – 30-year-old females, it doesn’t matter what your 55-year-old male boss thinks about the product.
Testing with real end users is where you’ll find the insights you need to improve your product. Whether you need to make huge changes or small tweaks – listen to their feedback, evaluate it, make the necessary changes, then test with them again.
Remain Focused On User Experience
The importance of user experience should never be underestimated. If it doesn’t make someone’s life easier or more enjoyable, the likelihood they’ll buy it is small. Rather than getting caught up in the bells and whistles of a product, focus on making it uncomplicated. This ensures users aren’t confused, meaning almost anyone can pick up your product and use it without stress.
Aesthetics Always Matter
Do you know the saying “you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth”? The same theory applies to products. If you have a choice of two items that provide the same function, you’re more inclined to choose the one you deem more aesthetically pleasing.
Yes, nailing functionality and user experience are the most important, but aesthetics are often the deciding factor in a purchase.
Don’t Sway From The Problem You’re Trying To Solve
Remember, at the start of the project, you pinpointed a problem you were trying to solve. Stick to it. It’s easy to forget your initial starting point and purpose – especially when these projects can go through many interactions of research and development.
Always keep the initial problem at the forefront of your mind and ask if what you’re doing solves it.
If You Can Simplify It – Do It
The simpler the product is to use, the better. So, if you find elements that are needless and don’t impact the overall aesthetic or functionality of the design, remove them.
You don’t need two buttons that do the same thing. Nor do you don’t need that small add-on that could easily break.
Simplify the design, and it will make manufacture and use much easier.
In Summary
This product design guide offers a series of principles to stick by when creating new products. It enables you to inspire the people you’re working with to do their best work while always remaining focused on creating products people want to buy.
The most successful products are those that put users first, solve problems, and are easy to use. Don’t overcomplicate it. Stick to the problem you’re trying to solve, and make it look good.
Sounds easy – doesn’t it? We promise you – it isn’t, but sticking to these product design tips will help. Alternatively, if you need an expert and one of the best product design companies to give you a helping hand – get in touch today.