Industrial Design needs to Evolve

In case you hadn't noticed, the recent pullback in the tech sector has caused major ripples through the design and tech community. Many large corporations have reduced their design staff and put projects on hold, waiting for better economic times. Design studios have scaled back their teams in response, as outsourcing projects have also dried up. It's at moments like these that I reflect on the field of industrial design and its importance. One thing is for sure: the profession must continually evolve to remain relevant and valued.

Product styling has become completely commoditized. Low-cost designers across the globe can compete and win based on price, pushing down the market value of this aspect of design services. This was very apparent during my visit to CES this year, where most of the IoT products were coming from China and were honestly well-designed and built.

The introduction of AI also impacts the value of aesthetics-driven designers. Now, just about anyone can input some keywords and produce reasonably good renderings of a product. Yes, you could argue that it’s a long way off from a seasoned designer’s originality, craft, and sense of the near future of design aesthetics, but I assure you clients, always looking for ways to cut costs, are not as sophisticated as you are about design and might consider AI as a “good enough” approach.

Another key point is the overproduction of industrial designers from design schools for the available jobs in the market, further pushing down our value. The training for industrial design is too focused on acquiring and developing skills—this vocational approach to design education creates industrial designers who are only prepared for a limited range of options when it comes to finding a job outside industrial design.

So, where is the real value in industrial design now? The value that drives up salaries and project fees to compete with other professions. I argue that our core value is making products easy to use, intuitive—and yes, delightful. But the core mission should always start with a process that is more rigorous and almost scientific in nature. Develop a deeper understanding of the people you are designing for. Have a hypothesis, build an experience prototype, test it, and then iterate.

There are multiple inputs for the hypotheses, such as market research, user interviews, and emerging technology. But if we don’t demonstrate rigor in our process and results that can be quantified, we are quickly relegated to aestheticians. We come onto a project once the engineering is done to make things look pretty. Sadly, in the market, this remains the predominant understanding from engineering and business.

What I just described is not fast and easy. When we design new products, we need to think about ergonomics, intuitive interfaces, and a rational sequence in the use of something from beginning to end. These types of activities are done alongside engineering, interaction, and experience design, and require collaborative teamwork. The result is a product that is immediately understandable, with logical steps of engagement, and ultimately effortless to use.

Most products on the market are not like this, so there is much need for the type of designer I am describing. As an example, why are EV chargers so complicated to use? They should be easier to use than filling your car with gasoline. Or, why does my printer sometimes work and sometimes not for no good explainable reason? Why does my car no longer recognize me as the driver? Why is the US Postal Service experience so awful? Why is my smart speaker constantly updating when I just want it to play music?

The need only grows when you consider that technology is becoming pervasive in all areas of human existence. Industrial designers must take a holistic approach to solving users' challenges beyond the physical look of things. Ultimately, when a product's components are organized in a way that fits the user's physical interaction and the product interface is intuitive, it leads to a harmonious experience where the aesthetics complement the functionality.

I am positive about the future of Industrial Design as long as we reanalyze what is needed and what we can do to make the world a little less complicated and a little more enjoyable.