What Is Industrial Design?

Industrial Design (ID) is the professional practice of designing products, devices, objects, and services used by millions of people around the world every day.
Industrial designers typically focus on the physical appearance, functionality, and manufacturability of a product, though they are often involved in far more during a development cycle. All of this ultimately extends to the overall lasting value and experience a product or service provides for end-users. Every object that you interact with on a daily basis in your home, office, school, or public setting is the result of a design process. During this process, myriad decisions are made by an industrial designer (and their team) that are aimed at improving your life through well-executed design.

What is the use of industrial design?

Industrial designers design products for users—primarily people—of all ages, races, demographics, incomes, ethnicities, abilities, and gender identities or expressions. An industrial designer can “walk in other people’s shoes” through research and observation to gain insights that inform the rest of the design process and ultimately lead to a design solution that solves the problem in a useful and meaningful way. Empathy with users, the environment and society as a whole is the main feature of the industrial design process. During the ideation or conceptual phase of a project, designers design, render, 3D model, create prototypes, and test ideas to find the best possible solutions for the user’s needs. This stage of the design process is chaotic, fast and often exciting! By testing, breaking, and rebuilding prototypes, designers can begin to understand how a product functions, looks, and is built. In the final stages of the design process, industrial designers will collaborate with mechanical engineers, materials scientists, manufacturers and branding strategists to bring their ideas to life through production, realization and marketing. After months and sometimes years of development, a product finds its way to store shelves around the world, where people can buy it and bring it into their homes.
The industrial design profession is constantly changing and evolving to keep pace with rapid advances in technology, cultural trends, and socio-economic forces. Designers now have to face new challenges that were unimaginable when the profession was born. It is indeed an exciting time to be working in the design industry.