Some things are designed better than others, thanks to product designers. Those are people who need to understand customers’ problems and commit to a handful of roles that facilitate the creation of a solution. Duties of this position often include not only creating the appearance of a product but analyzing the working concepts of competitors to match quality and performance.
It might seem like a very interesting job: imagine being responsible for how the phone application looks, or what’s the shape of a bottle of your favorite beer. If you are a creative person you may wonder “How to become a successful product designer?”. In this article, we gathered some advice from the web and asked our colleagues from Clearmove to share their experiences.
General tips and tricks
If you want to become a great specialist in the product design field, the following will help you:
- Vigorous imagination. Do not use obvious solutions in the first instant. The more creative you are in your approach, the better it is for any designer.
- Self-assessment. Constant analyzing of your work does improve the performance. Try to look at your creation as other people do to get a more realistic understanding.
- Direct conveying of information. The design language differs from the business language. Being able to express creative ideas is as important as mastering the art of communication.
- Education. As product designers, you should be well versed with technology and production methods, especially if we’re talking about the IT world.
- Multitasking. Product design needs constant work and improvement, there’s no time for waiting.
Tips from Tanya Basanska, Junior Product Designer
If you are a beginner designer, even not necessarily in the product field, I’d recommend taking some basic course in the branch that interests you. There are many schools out there, so the choice is quite big. Self-development is vital though, do not fully rely on courses as they give only a basic understanding of what’s needed. The next step is looking for internships. The faster you switch from concepts to real projects, the better.
My favorite sources of knowledge:
- Nielsen Norman Group – the world leaders in UX research and consulting who provide reliable guidance on user experience.
- Vaexperience is a youtube channel with lots of useful UX case reviews, lessons, advice, etc.
- Look for UI examples everywhere you can
Tips from Alina Ponyatyshyn, Junior Product Designer/Graphic Designer
There is no fixed journey to becoming a successful product designer. What you must understand is that it isn’t just the technical know-how you have that makes you a good product designer, it is more the process you form to help any user achieve the desired outcome in the most intuitive path possible. To become a successful designer is not necessary to obtain a university degree. There are a lot of free resources, you can start with them. If you want to be taught, it is better to go to courses.
I can recommend such design schools in Kyiv:
- Tilda School or – courses on how to create websites on Tilda
- Projector – creative tech school and community
- Kyiv Academy of Media Arts – pretty self-explanatory
Free Youtube resources :
For literature more focused on this specific field, you can give some of these books a try:
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Tips from Igor Dymarskiy, Lead Product Designer
Igor is a team leader with a wide experience (by the way, you can read an interview with him here). Therefore, he won’t recommend resources for newcomers, but would rather share some general advice to those who want to become great in this profession:
- Walk with wide-open eyes. Human’s eyes were never in such great demand as nowadays. Try to absorb everything you see and analyze it.
- Think critically. Try to understand why certain things work particularly this way. For example: why this pen has exactly this shape.
- Try everything in practice. No comments here.
- Be interested in history and analyze it. Instead of books and manuals, it will be very useful to know some examples from history and build your conclusions based on them.
Do you want to work together with Tanya, Alina, and Igor and create great designs for users? Apply here if you are ready to try: