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.
Artist & Recent graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design
2moI feel if designers could push past the Dieter Rams aesthetic we might find ourselves more indispensable. Rectangles with chamfers and bezier faces can be replicated artlessly and often enough lend themselves to the uninformed and poor UX you discussed above.
global design leader, coach, educator, and futurist.
2moGood article. It does start with education and looking at most ID schools - this is where to start fixing the problem. Too many ID people over-index on 'craft' and qualify themselves through how good they are with the tools. The tools are about to change significantly (probably the next big paradigm shift since the introduction of CAD..). The new AI-driven tools will be easy for non-designers, and delivering output will be just fine. Will it outperform a 'seasoned designer' with Ai tools? Maybe not.. but it doesn't have to. Ai & 'good enough': Right now, it is certainly not great. But I think we can all agree that this will get better sooner rather than later. Discarding AI-driven/enabled/ generated design output as 2nd class.. will lead to a dangerous blind spot.
Industrial design specialist of hi-tech styling, ergonomics, CMF and 3D CAD
2moWhat is relevant in ID? The skills no other discipline have. AI can make a pretty rendering, tell the one that thinks its enough to finish that design to a real beautiful product that feels just right and is flawlessly manufactured and finished. The real work starts when design is frozen and going to actually making it. Requirements, relevance in the market, customer needs, the reason for a product to exist, all that is really the responsibility of those who decide that a product will be created. ID can help but it’s usually above our pay grade in a corporation. HOW to achieve the product’s hopefully relevant goals is the magic we can do. Never alone though. Maybe it’s communication skills we must develop.
Good point!
US Navy Veteran C-130 Squadron, Human Factors/Product Design Consultant at Sun Group Design LLC Owner/Developer - Ergo-Link TM CAD Mannequins
2moWhen the economy tanks, the first thing a manufacturer does is cut R&D and that includes ID. When you have a large group of ID's, EM Engineers, Shop Techs, & Office Staff it is painful, but you have to consider a cutback due to overhead which can put even a very healthy office out of business very quickly. However, as stated in the article, ID is so ubiquitous globally that a business can often continue ID using low-cost off-shore labor and the most effective recent technology to maintain their product brand and sales volumes.