Design’s no longer about just making things pretty. Because design is the new language of business.
But why? Because as technology continues to force its way into the lives of the global population, the implications of how a product is designed carry weight like never before. A product’s design can put entire businesses at stake—and the livelihoods of our customers, as well.
Enter the rise of product design. You could even call it a design renaissance, if you’re feeling grandiose.
“Design’s no longer about just making things pretty.”
Whatever you call it, the interest in what product design is and what it does has surged in recent years. Now, more than ever, those of us working in—or wanting to work in—technology have become more curious about what product design is capable of and what it even is.
That’s because we need something bigger to describe the responsibilities placed on product teams. But product design remains a difficult concept to grasp, even by people who are actually doing the work.
In my new book, Designing Products People Love, I’ve broken down the lessons of 27 successful product designers, from juggernauts like Slack, Facebook, and Highrise—to up-and-comers you may not have heard of yet, but soon will. When you read the book, you’ll unlock the secrets of creating a successful product from idea through launch.
And, ultimately, the lessons they teach through their experiences will bring more clarity to your work. You’ll see how products are conceived, built, released—and, gasp, how they found customers who were willing to pay for their product!
“A product’s design can put an entire business at stake.”
My goal is to bring a clarity of process to your work. So you’ll see how the real, nitty-gritty work is done, answering questions like:
- How do successful product designers find their audience’s pains?
- What are the 5 states they incorporate into every interface?
- How do they conduct meetings?
- What’s the value of a prototype, and how do they use tools like InVision to unify their teams?
- How do they create habit-forming and emotionally-engaging experiences?
- And, ultimately, when’s the right time to ship a product?
Take Jon Troutman, the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at hardware startup Canary. Troutman’s responsible for the company’s hardware and software design, which includes a suite of mobile and web applications.
He starts his designs in the unlikeliest of places: a text editor!
“I like to start in TextEdit as a content inventory canvas where I start to type out things that I know are going to be on the page or on the app.” he said in our interview. “Doing this forces you to whittle down your content and make things shorter and smaller and more succinct, and you start to rearrange stuff around. It’s actually pretty key to my process and I use it all the time.”
“When we learn to improve the how of doing things, everybody benefits when we put it into practice.”
Speaking of process, what could you learn from Jonathan Badeen, the co-founder of Tinder and inventor of the “swipe right?” You could learn how infusing emotion into his product helped make putting yourself out there in a dating app less scary and intimidating.
“Humans, like any curious animal, enjoy manipulating their environment,” he said in our interview. “They want things to bend to their will. There is emotion in the way that we handle objects. Think of the losing card player who angrily throws down their cards compared to the winner carefully splaying out their cards while taunting ‘read them and weep’ with pride. I try to add physicality to interactions that provide the same sense of physical manipulation that we are used to in the physical world. Touchscreens make this a lot easier than ever before.”
This book is written for anyone who wants to be better at creating digital products. Because when we learn to improve the how of doing things, everybody benefits when we put it into practice.
Just for the InVision community: use this link to get 20% off Designing Products People Love.
by Scott Hurff
Scott Hurff is a Lead Designer and Product Manager at Tinder. He also teaches designers new skills at designers.how.
