1. What is design?
- Design is the practice of creating functional and attractive solutions to users’ needs and desires.
- There are many kinds of design (including Industrial Design, UXUI Design, Graphic Design), which are collectively referred to as User Experience Design (UXD). Designers are often skilled in multiple kinds of design.
2. What is industrial design?
- Industrial design is the practice of creating products such as devices, objects, and services. Industrial designers define a product’s features and functionality as well as its visual and physical characteristics. These aspects of a product are called the user interface (UI).
3. Are industrial designers artists?
- Not exactly! Although industrial designers and artists are both creative, industrial design solutions perform a function to solve a problem. Industrial design solutions are also typically manufactured in mass quantities. Therefore, industrial designers have expertise in creating technically- and commercially viable solutions. At the same time, industrial designers strive to make products easy and enjoyable to use!
4. Are industrial designers engineers?
- Not quite! Industrial designers define the intended user experience of a product from what it does to how it looks while engineers are tasked with making the product function as intended and detailing mechanisms for production.
5. What activities do industrial designers do?
- Industrial designers can do more than just make a product look good: they are also skilled in creating innovative solutions related to product function, ergonomics, marketing, and branding.
- To do so, designers leverage sketching (both digitally and with pen and paper), building digital models with computer-aided drawing (CAD) software, rendering (creating photo-realistic images of digital models), and rapid prototyping (including 3D printing).
- In addition, industrial designers regularly collaborate with other teams, such as Marketing, Design Research, and Human Factors Engineering, to gain a deep understanding of user needs, evaluate design concepts with users, and ensure the usability of each design solution. Industrial designers must also work closely with Engineering to ensure functional components are compatible with the user interface, and vice versa.
6. Do I know any industrial designers?
- You may not know any industrial designers personally, but you have certainly interacted with their work! For example, products from Nike, IKEA, and Apple were all designed by industrial designers. You might also recognize the names of famous industrial designers, including Jonathan Ive, Dieter Rams, Charles and Ray Eames, James Dyson, and Raymond Loewy.
- To get to know the industrial designers at Insight by Nemera and learn more about our services, visit our website: Insight by Nemera - Nemera
