From Idea to Prototype: A Guide to the Product Design Process

Home - Blog - From Idea to Prototype: A Guide to the Product Design Process

What is a product design? This approach allows brands to view their identity as a marketing product, define the potential problems, and come up with a solution able to verify the real market. To create a good product design, it is important to think from the perspective of design, and how it will be interpreted because this is what will help you to set the base of product design development.

What is a product design process?

When defining a product design, many people instantly think about design thinking. Here is the main steps design thinking relies on: empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. Empathy helps understand the pain points the market has and gives a new perspective to find solutions for them. Empathy is followed by testing, during the process of which you can also come up with new ideas and insights. Last but not least, prototyping, encourages you to create better ideas.

These processes do not have a strict sequence and can be repeated as many times as the team members need.

Thus, design thinking creates an environment where designers and users work together to come up with better and stronger ideas. The purpose of this is to promote the process of design creation based on true and accurate data.

How a PR & Marketing agency works on product creation

Idea generation

Idea generation starts from brainstorming, which comes in structured and unstructured forms. Sometimes team members do it together, in order to voice and hear thoughts that can potentially become one of the cornerstones of the project. This is why brainstorming is a productive session that brings out creativity and diverse perspectives.

During these sessions, the team can also use different techniques such as SWOT analyses, mind mapping, SCAMPER method which stands for substitute, combine, adapt, put to another use, and eliminate reverse.

After brainstorming, the team has a pile of new ideas that need filtration.

Concept development

Refining the idea includes diving further into its center components and distilling its essence. This cycle includes glancing through the underlying thought, perceiving its resources and inadequacies, and making sense of its basic features and targets.

Input is likewise a basic piece of this stage. Cooperative conversations with colleagues, specialists, and potential clients can give important viewpoints and assist with refining the plan to more likely line up with client needs and market requests.

Last but not least, the big ideas are generated from simplicity, which are in their own way the start of the prototype, which will soon become the project itself.

The design

Designing the project includes sketching, CAD modeling, using prototyping tools, and so many more procedures that define the product development process. This is the process when the initial concept of the project becomes the blueprint for production. It starts with sketching and modeling, with the help of which the team members, particularly the designers, can visually inspect different ideas, concepts, and more. They help the group conceptualize and convey, originators additionally transform them into additional justifiable and lucid portrayals.

This process is followed by integrating CAD modeling which stands for computer-aided design modeling. With this procedure, the experts make the advanced rendition of the venture while utilizing demonstrating strategies like 2D and 3D.

The prototype

Many companies, that provide design services, agree that prototype helps to avoid potential design mistakes. However, it also helps with the following:

  • The previously planned structure helps to save more time.
  • It helps to make the developer’s job easier since they just follow strict outlines that contain all the necessary information.
  • As a technical task, it is created and controlled by all the team members, including marketing specialists and developers.

Prototypes have a few types each of which is created and designed for individual purposes. Here they are.

  • Conceptual prototypes: The early-staged prototypes visualize the concept of design. They are mainly focused on creating the main ideas of the project, as well as its functionality.
  • Functional prototypes: These are more advanced and are able to demonstrate the product’s main functionality. In many cases, they include some basic features and mechanisms that validate user-friendliness and easy interaction.
  • Visual prototypes: This is when the team members start to work on the visuals of the product, making it more aesthetically appealing for more attention.
  • Interactive prototypes: These are the ones responsible for user interactions, they allow designers to test the product’s usability and also gather feedback on various aspects of the project. These mostly include clickable interfaces, animations, and other interactive elements.

To create the best prototype, team members can use various prototyping methods, such as 3D printing, CNC machining, injection molding, rapid prototyping, and so on.

The final steps: Testing and launch

Testing is needed to make sure the final product meets the standards of the market, as well as is user-friendly. During this process, the team members, including but not limited to the developers, designers, and marketing specialists, view the product, use it from the perspective of the users, and remove the extra points that can tangle with the smoothness of the project’s work.

In the wake of ensuring the item is prepared, the group dispatches it into the market and advances it through various promoting efforts and ads. The launch has to be created strategically, where time, ad channels, and tactics are defined and ready. This is a voluminous undertaking during which PR specialists and the showcasing group work together for the best result. Many marketing campaigns can also integrate various interactive advertisements, product demonstrations, and so on.

Conclusion

Product creation is a strategy that includes the collaboration of many specialists to come up with the best results. During this process, the individuals start research of many forms, starting from market research, design, prototype, testing, and the other steps mentioned above. All of these steps build the final product, ready to be used by targeted users.

The ideal product design requires a specialized approach, during which many specialists from various fields work together and bring out the best results. Thus, if you are looking for the best outcome, seek professional help that will understand the purpose of your product design, and follow the process of creating your product.

Table of Contents

james.foster