What is the role of a Product Designer?

Summary

This video clarifies the multifaceted role of a product designer, distinguishing them from UX and UI designers. It emphasizes the need for product designers to understand customers, recognize business needs, and translate requirements into designs that solve problems. The script explores the importance of user experience, user interface, and design systems, highlighting the daily tasks of a product designer, such as wireframing, prototyping, and user testing. It concludes by noting the varying scope of product design roles across different company sizes, from specialized roles in large companies to a more holistic approach in startups.

Takeaways

• 🔍 A product designer's role is often confused with other design roles such as UX, UI, and digital designers.
• 👥 Product designers need to understand customers and recognize business needs, balancing both perspectives.
• 🛠️ They are responsible for translating requirements into design solutions, including user experience and visual design.
• 🔬 Product designers are skilled in user research and validation, gathering feedback to inform the next steps.
• 🧩 Product designers are problem solvers who understand UX, UI, and design systems.
• 🎨 UX (User Experience) focuses on how users feel when interacting with a product and the overall user behavior.
• 🖼️ UI (User Interface) is about the visual aspects of a product, including aesthetics and how it affects the user experience.
• 🏗️ Design systems involve creating libraries and patterns for consistent product design across different products from the same brand.
• 📈 Product designers use design thinking methods, such as user journey maps and storyboards, to understand user flows and interactions.
• 📝 They work on wireframes and prototypes, ensuring the design is efficient for development teams and reusable for iterations.
• 📊 After creating prototypes, product designers conduct user testing sessions and provide solutions or recommendations based on feedback.
• 🌐 The scope of a product designer's role can vary greatly depending on the size of the company, from specialized roles in large companies to a merged role in startups.

Q & A

What is the primary role of a product designer according to the video?

A product designer is a problem solver who understands UX, UI, and design systems, focusing on understanding customers, recognizing business needs, translating requirements into design, and being skilled at user research and validation.

Why is it essential for a product designer to understand the customers?

Understanding customers is essential for a product designer to create products that meet user needs and improve user experience, which in turn can affect business metrics like conversions.

What does the term 'UX' stand for and what is its significance in product design?

UX stands for 'User Experience'. It is significant in product design because it focuses on how users feel when interacting with a product, which is crucial for improving user satisfaction and engagement.

What is the difference between UX and UI design as discussed in the video?

UX design is concerned with the overall user experience and behavior, while UI design focuses on the visual aspects and user interaction with the product, including elements like colors, button shapes, and text readability.

Can you explain what 'Design Systems' are in the context of product design?

Design Systems refer to the libraries and patterns used in creating consistent and reusable design elements across different products of the same brand. They include style guides, component libraries, and design principles that ensure consistency and efficiency in design work.

How does a product designer incorporate design systems into their work?

A product designer uses design systems to create reusable components and maintain consistency across various products. This approach enhances efficiency and allows for faster iterations and development.

What are the typical tasks a product designer performs on a daily basis?

A product designer's daily tasks may include working on ideas, understanding user and business needs, creating user journey maps or storyboards, designing wireframes, prototyping, and conducting user testing sessions.

Why is prototyping an important part of a product designer's job?

Prototyping is important because it allows the product designer to translate wireframes into a finished product that incorporates UX, UI, and design system skills, making it efficient for development teams to use.

How does user research and validation play a role in the product design process?

User research and validation help product designers gather feedback on their designs, understand user needs and preferences, and determine the next actions to improve the product effectively.

What is the difference between the roles of a product designer in a large company versus a small startup?

In large companies, roles are often more specified with dedicated UX researchers, writers, etc. In small startups, a product designer might be a multi-hyphenate, covering UX, UI, and other design aspects, due to limited resources.

How can someone benefit from understanding the role of a product designer as explained in the video?

Understanding the role of a product designer can help individuals appreciate the complexity of the job, recognize the importance of a user-centered design approach, and potentially guide them in their career path or collaboration with product designers.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Understanding the Role of a Product Designer

This paragraph introduces the video's focus on clarifying the role of a product designer amidst the confusion that arises from various design titles such as UX, UI, and digital designers. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer, recognizing business needs, translating requirements into design, and being skilled in user research and validation. Product designers are depicted as problem solvers with a grasp of UX, UI, and design systems. The explanation distinguishes between user experience (UX), which deals with how users feel and interact with a product, and user interface (UI), which is more about the visual aspects and aesthetics. Design systems are also introduced as a way to create consistency and efficiency across different products from the same brand.

05:00

🛠️ Daily Tasks of a Product Designer

The second paragraph delves into the daily responsibilities of a product designer, highlighting tasks such as creating user journey maps, storyboards, and understanding user and interaction flows. It discusses the preliminary stages of wireframing and the importance of developing multiple versions to determine the most valuable approach. Prototyping is identified as a significant part of a product designer's job, requiring the integration of UX, UI, and design system skills to produce a finished design that is both reusable and efficient for development teams. The paragraph also touches on user testing sessions and the designer's role in presenting findings and recommendations back to the business. It concludes by noting the variability of product design roles depending on the company size, with larger companies having more specialized roles, while smaller startups may require a designer to wear many hats.

Keywords

💡Product Designer

A product designer is a professional who focuses on the overall design and functionality of a product, balancing user needs, business requirements, and design aesthetics. In the video, the role of a product designer is emphasized as being essential in understanding customers, recognizing business needs, translating requirements into design, and being skilled at user research and validation. They are described as problem solvers who understand UX, UI, and design systems.

💡User Experience (UX)

User Experience (UX) refers to how a person feels when interacting with a product. It encompasses the overall satisfaction and ease of use from a user's perspective. In the video, UX is highlighted as a key concern for product designers who aim to improve general user behavior and affect metrics like conversions. The script mentions that UX designers conduct research and study user interactions to enhance the experience.

💡User Interface (UI)

User Interface (UI) is the visual aspect of a product, focusing on how it looks and how users interact with it. The video script explains that UI designers are concerned with the aesthetics and functionality of elements like colors, button shapes, and text readability. While often associated with aesthetics alone, UI design is also about ensuring a positive user experience.

💡Design Systems

Design systems involve creating a set of reusable design components or a library that can be used across different products or projects within a brand. The video script mentions that design systems are crucial for larger companies with multiple products, as they ensure consistency and efficiency in design. Examples given include Uber, Spotify, and Slack, which use design systems to maintain a cohesive brand identity across various platforms.

💡User Research

User research is the process of gathering feedback and understanding user behavior to inform design decisions. In the video, product designers are described as being skilled at user research, which involves conducting studies and analyzing user interactions to guide the design process. This research helps in creating designs that meet user needs and expectations.

💡User Journey Map

A user journey map is a visual representation of the steps a user takes while interacting with a product or service. The video script mentions that product designers often create user journey maps to understand users' experiences and identify areas for improvement. This tool helps in designing more intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.

💡Wireframes

Wireframes are basic, schematic representations of a user interface that outline the structure and layout of a design. The video explains that product designers work on wireframes before moving on to visual design. They might create different versions, such as low-fidelity ones, to study and understand what brings the most value to the user experience.

💡Prototyping

Prototyping is the process of creating a sample or model of a product to test and refine its design. The video script highlights that product designers are involved in prototyping, translating wireframes into a finished product that incorporates UX, UI, and design system principles. This prototype is used to gather user feedback and make necessary adjustments.

💡Design Thinking

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that focuses on understanding the user's needs and experiences to drive innovation. The video mentions that product designers use design thinking methods, such as creating user journey maps or storyboards, to develop solutions that are both user-centric and business-oriented.

💡User Flow

User flow refers to the sequence of interactions a user has with a product or service. In the video, understanding user flows is described as a typical job for product designers. It involves analyzing how users navigate through a product and identifying points of friction or opportunities for improvement.

💡User Testing

User testing involves observing and gathering feedback from users as they interact with a product or prototype. The video script explains that product designers conduct user testing sessions to validate their designs and gather insights that can inform further iterations. This process is crucial for ensuring that the final product meets user needs and expectations.

Highlights

The role of a product designer is often confused with other design roles like UX, UI, and digital designer.

Product designers need to understand customers, which is essential for their role.

Recognizing business needs is crucial for balancing customer expectations with company goals.

Product designers translate requirements into design, focusing on both user experience and visual elements.

User research and validation are key skills for product designers to gather feedback and guide next actions.

Product designers are problem solvers who understand UX, UI, and design systems.

UX (user experience) focuses on how users feel when interacting with a product.

UI (user interface) is more focused on visuals and how they affect user experience.

Design systems involve creating libraries and patterns for consistent product design across different products.

Companies like Uber, Spotify, and Slack have effective design systems that enhance their product consistency.

A product designer's daily tasks include working on ideas, understanding users, and using design thinking methods.

Product designers often create user journey maps and product design storyboards to understand user flows.

Wireframing is an essential step for product designers before moving on to visual work.

Prototyping is a significant part of a product designer's job, involving UX, UI, and design system skills.

A good prototype should use a design system that is reusable and efficient for development teams.

User testing sessions are crucial for product designers to compile feedback and present solutions to the business.

In larger companies, roles like UX researchers and UX writers are more specified, whereas in startups, product designers may cover multiple roles.

Product designers should be skilled in all aspects of UX, UI, and design systems to be effective in their role.

Transcripts

[Music]

what is up my good people

in this video i'm going to talk to you

about what is really the role of a

product designer

a lot of people get confused because

there's ux designer there's ui designer

there's digital designer

there's product designer that's so

confusing i understand but this is the

world that we live in

and that's why i'm here to try and

explain that to you and hopefully it's

helpful

before we get into that i'd appreciate

if you like

comment subscribe and also hit that

notification button

if you like these videos so first thing

let's have a look at what are really the

general things that the product designer

is required to do

and this will be quite broad but i'll

get into the details and the specifics

after this so the four points that i've

got here is

a product designer needs to understand

the customers it is so essential to do

that

the second one is recognize the business

needs so

it needs to be balanced as well it's not

all about the customers

but you need to innovate within the

intersection of what the business

requires and its customers and the third

one

is to translate requirements into design

whether that's user experience or visual

the fourth one

is this person is skilled at user

research

and validation for them to be able to

gather feedback

and describe what the next action should

be

so if we look at those things product

designers are really

problem solvers who understand ux ui

and design systems so ux meaning user

experience

ui user interaction user interface and

design systems which i'll explain a

little bit further

first of all let's try and understand

very very briefly

what is ux ux is user experience which

means

this person this product designer who

who knows ux

would be concerned about how the users

feel when they're interacting with your

product what do what do they feel

when they're using this interface when

they're using this

feature what what's the feedback that

they

get out of it and what could be improved

in terms of general user behavior

that it would affect certain things like

conversions

or any type of other metrics that

businesses would want to look at

so user experience designers are mostly

concerned about this

that's why they do a lot of research and

trying to understand

and trying to study what the users does

the next thing is ui what about it so ui

is more focused on visuals we're talking

about user interaction or user interface

so if you're

imagining a mobile app a ui designer

would be

concerned about how it looks the colors

how it affects user experience

as well is another important thought

that a ui designer would look into

so even like the colors of the buttons

the shape of the buttons

is it too big too small are text too

hard to read you know all sorts of

visual stuff like that so it's not

really about aesthetics only

people often think that ui designer only

focuses on visual design and aesthetics

but not really

in addition to that it is a lot more

meaningful when user

interface designers actually thinks

about the

experience aspect of it hopefully i'm

not confusing you

but ux and ui can be quite confusing

sometimes and that's why people would

say

ux ui designer because they tend to do

the same thing

or at least they need to be concerned

about one another and what about design

systems

man like design systems is another whole

different world

where you're thinking about the

libraries the patterns of your products

so think about a style guide think about

in

the traditional sense a brand style

guide while you where you

have you know like how logos are being

placed what are the

negative space around it what type of

photography would you use

you know all of that stuff but design

systems is almost

that same thing but device in a more

advanced

manner where it can be used on different

products from the cert

from the same brand and then and it just

communicates different patterns

and libraries that other people can use

so when you

have a brand that has a good design

system let's say

the ones that i can think on top my head

are people like uber for example

or are i think spotify

has it as well slack but these type of

companies

would have different products and

different projects and different teams

working on different projects that a

design system becomes

even more important so a good product

designer would understand design systems

and how to use it

or how to device a design system and

therefore their work

and their team's work is going to be a

lot more efficient down the track

so just very quickly what does a product

designer really do

on a daily basis well a day in a life a

product designer would be

working on ideas and trying to

understand users

trying to understand business needs this

involves design thinking methods

oftentimes

an example would be coming up with a

user journey map or coming up with

product design storyboards generally in

a user interface flow or

user flow it can be in many ways but

yeah understanding user flows

interaction flows things like that would

be a typical product designer job

a product designer would be working on

wireframes as well before getting into

any visual work

but then a product designer might devise

a couple of different versions of

wireframes

low fidelity ones and be able to study

that and understand what brings the most

value

then move forward with it and another

huge job of a product designer is

obviously prototyping itself

so from those wireframes how do they

translate that

into um a good finished product

and that involves ux ui skills and of

course design system skills a good

prototype or a good design piece

a finished product design file would be

one that

uses a good design system

library and is reusable when they want

to create

iterations and is efficient for

development team or technical teams to

use at the same time

so those are like typical jobs that

product designers would do

in addition to that obviously once the

prototype is out they'll be doing some

user testing

sessions compile it and

present it back to the business and

provide some solutions or

recommendations to

the problems so as you can see product

design can mean so many things

it depends on what scale of a company

we're talking about the bigger the

company like

if we think about the googles and the

facebooks of the world there are very

specified

roles in there there are ux researchers

there are even ux

writers that all they do is writing in a

ux mind

instead of doing the whole thing but

it's a small startup world

the product designer the ux designer

they're all really merged into just

one person so you might have a designer

who is a product designer yes you can

call him or her

a ux designer a ui designer or whatever

but they're just a designer

but they cover all sorts of things but

what that means is this person would

focus

less than that ux writer that we talk

about in google

so there's no right or wrong but in

general

a product designer would cover all of

these aspects that they're actually

they're actually skilled in all of this

that's it guys hopefully that's helpful

for you to understand

um if you have any questions or any uh

burning inquiries that has not been

answered in this video feel free to send

me a message

uh leave us a comment as well don't

forget to like because i

that i really appreciate that and

subscribe as well if you haven't done so

if you enjoy this videos please

share it with your friends and

colleagues who might benefit from it

alright guys have a good one