An excellent digital product designer still considers the traditional method useful for producing an integrated and effectively functional outcome for the customers. Nevertheless, there are specific skills you must equip yourself with to be the successful expert that all companies are interested in working with.
Key Takeaways:
Chris Bailey, an experienced expert in both traditional and digital product design, underlines the use of code in the process of creating the final product. Therefore, you must familiarise yourself with three different disciplines: user experience (UX), user interface (UI), and last but not least, interaction design.
Furthermore, despite the convenience of working with digital material and receiving approximately $94,515 per year, you are still required to ensure the outcome pleases the customers both visually and interactively.
Also Read: 10 Essential Elements of Graphic Design: Designers Should Know!
Indeed argues that product design is a teamwork process. There is no exact formula for how to become a digital product designer, either.
But, some employers possibly demand that you be familiar with a wide range of specific areas, after assessing your portfolio and possibly looking at your diploma degree. Below are some of the examples.
To learn about sound design is not to demand that you be a musician, but to obtain the instinct to determine the good sound. For example, if your employer requires you to include music or dubbing in the digital product, you must ensure all of the features, like volume, types, and even the audio channels, are fitting to the brand.
Apart from the visual aspect, a digital product designer should consider the influence of word choices, tones, and arrangements. All of them must align with the company’s goals, audience segmentation and identity, whether the words should be informative or persuasive, or whether they need to be in Gen Z jargon or formal sentences.
When speaking about digital products, you will have Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involved. However, employers usually hire experts to maximize the exposure of your creation.
Nevertheless, it is never wrong to get yourself familiarised with SEO so that you can also understand how to obtain the data of user interaction with your product.
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Indeed implies that there are specifications in digital product design, depending on the type of industry and organization. But, generally, you are expected to use a mix of technical skills, like business and software fluency, to achieve an effective product for a good user experience.
Alican Bektas has listed down several inspiring product designers who may be your inspiration and motivation to be the better version of yourself.
On wallpaper, the mind behind Apple Watch and iPod admits that the struggle of employing the vision for the future consequently overlooks the necessity to get insights from past products.
They are not outdated, but they are the results of how his team solved problems and overcame obstacles to produce a revolutionary outcome.
The arguably pioneer of the original Xbox continues to spread his wings by joining one of the biggest e-commerce sites, Amazon, to presumably be involved in the development of several products, including ZeroOne. It is an alleged new launch that is capable of integrating computer techniques into smart home products.
Julio Zhuo highlights that her time at Facebook, where she started as an intern before getting the role of a digital product designer, was different and engaging. The working process reminds her of the time at Stanford University.
She also mentions that she faced unfamiliarity in different subjects, including frontend development. Regardless, she underlines the importance of diving in and listening to other colleagues who are more adept to learn as much as you need.
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The Product Director at Google has been sharing his knowledge in mobile and web product designs through his books, like Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability and Mobile First. In addition to that, he is not restricted to writing about his insights on his blog, lukew.com.
Similar to Julie Zhuo, Aaditya Ailawadhi began his journey at Microsoft as an intern and obtained irreplaceable experience, including the importance of having a growth mindset and embracing mistakes. There are all the opportunities to grow and to become more fluent in the tools or even the pace of working in product design.
Also Read: 10+ Website Design Tips You Cannot Overlook
So, that is the information about the skills, responsibilities, and inspirational experts for your inspiration to become a digital product designer. Start with baby steps, listening to every advice and diving into new things without fearing failure. And become the best in this field.
Further, suppose you are ready to dig deeper into this field, do not forget about the visual. Create a better design with the best typography for digital products. Visit Blankids Studio for more collections to use!
