The Future of Product Design

Chapter 1. The Future of Product Design

Jonathan Follett

A Product Design Renaissance

The world is changing. The lines between software and hardware blur; fresh approaches to manufacturing reduce the time from idea to market; and new smart objects and systems herald our connected future.¹

A product design renaissance might be on its way, but despite all this potential and promise—or maybe because of it—the ride could well be a bumpy one. The human aspect of the equation remains the x-factor. And, how we work together as participants in this product revolution, both as people and as organizations, will play a key role in the outcome.

There’s never been a better time to be a product designer, although there’s also perhaps never been a more confusing time, either. Today, the combination of emerging technologies and powerful new resources and methods—from open source reference designs to crowdfunding—are democratizing innovation, compressing the design cycle, and reshaping the relationship between consumer and product. If the amalgam of user experience (UX), software, industrial, material, and engineering design had a name, it would probably be product design—although it’s likely that product designers themselves wouldn’t agree on it.

In this report, we’ll examine from a product designer’s perspective the ways in which these changes are disrupting design and the product lifecycle as well as considerations for people and companies looking at new ways of approaching product innovation ...