Despite all the obvious commercial benefits of designing a great product, software or service, consistently staying on top of all the aspects of a great design becomes trickier and more difficult. Only the very best designs stand out in the heaps of other products that come out every year, especially more so after the pandemic because of a stark increase in customer expectations driven by e-commerce and instant access to global reviews and information about the said product. Industrial Design Consultancies need to stay on their toes and figure out how to effectively attend to the needs of their end-users, businesses, and as well as their manufacturers.
End-users
For years, we have been advised and taught to begin any project with an end in mind. Now, that would seem like an obvious place to start anything, let alone a design whose main purpose is to be used by thousands of consumers. However, it is surprising how many designers seem to design products with everything but the end user in mind.
To take an example, the plastic packaging of popular toys and electronic accessories is very effective in reducing in-store thefts and protecting the products during shipping, but they might as well be consumer-proof. Without a proper box cutter or a pair of scissors it is almost impossible to open the sharp, stiff plastic without risking a few cuts and scratches on one’s hand, not to mention the effects these have on the planet. In this case, the products are packaged by manufacturers for retailers, not for their consumers. The design meets the needs of the client who pays the bills but not the user. The idea and main goal is to make your entire product from the design to the packaging specifically with the end-user in mind
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Businesses and Manufacturing
It’s not uncommon knowledge to know that a product’s design is what drives its sales, not only does the designer have to get a perfect understanding of the needs of its users but also implement it. If a user is given the choice to choose between two similar products solving the very same problem, the user would very much choose the better-designed option. So from a business point of view, the design team that comprehends its user’s needs is the one that gets to stay in business. The same goes for the manufacturing point of view, the better understanding of how easy it is to manufacture a product, the easier it becomes for the company to produce the products in bulk and sell them. A comprehensive industrial designed product allows the manufacturer to create seamless physical products and experiences.
Conclusion
Rapid growth and innovation have created massive changes in businesses and the way a consumer looks for new products. As more and more people get online and the market steadily and continuously grows, people are in need of good designs and, effective design consultancies like Future Factory are the only ones that are equipped to handle that. They attend to an all-around understanding of the needs of its manufacturers, end-users as well as businesses.
