The two most confusing jobs in this preset era are that of a product designer and a UX designer. It is not easy to understand the difference because of the myriad of similarities both have. In many industries, the terms are interchangeable, leading to more bafflement and confusion.

This is why most people choose the wrong career and repent in the future. They don’t have clarity about these subjects concerning the roles and responsibilities, salaries, and future job prospects. Keeping this in mind, we have discussed some major differences everyone should know about a product and UX designer.

This article will clarify and help you choose the best product or UI/UX design company from an employer’s perspective. After all, ending up with the wrong choice will lead to not only a waste of time and money but may jeopardize the user experience or product.

What are product design And UX design?

As the name suggests, product design is the process through which a new product is designed from scratch to meet customer requirements and market expectations. The design process involves multiple steps, from brainstorming ideas to testing prototypes and deploying the same for production. For example, when a company decides to launch a new mobile, the first phase is the design process. 

UX defines the user experience, i.e., how the user will feel using the product. It can be satisfactory, impressive, worst, and so on. Therefore, UX is concerned with the users’ psychology and behaviors. It is very important for the UX design company you have hired to carefully study the consumer market and understand what they are expecting.

Failure to gather knowledge on this matter can lead to further problems as they won’t be able to understand how several notches can take up the UX. In addition, it may lead to product failure post-release into production and the market. For this reason, companies must pay close attention to the UX design process. 

How the product or UX design is carried out?

A product or UX design process is divided into six steps, which are:

• Idea generation: In this phase, designers gather and study different documents on requirements or expectations. They share ideas and opinions through brainstorming. These ideas are then filtered, and only one is chosen that sounds to be the closest to the requirement.
• Product definition: In the next step, the designers define different attributes of the product or UX attributes. If it is software, the designer will define its UI elements, the number of pages it will have, layouts, color configurations, and so on.
   
• Prototype formation: The most important step of product and UI design is prototyping, where the professionals convert the design into a real-time prototype.
• Initial design phase: The prototype is approved and sent for production. Most companies start with small batches to reduce the losses later on if the product or UX fails to draw in the expected revenues.
• Testing and validation: Once the samples are ready to be released into the market, different testing processes are initiated, like performance testing, load testing, and so on.
• Commercialization and marketing: The samples are released into the market for users in this step. Marketing strategies are implemented to commercialize the product.

Know the Difference between UI and UX Design

What are the roles and responsibilities of a product designer?

A product designer supervises and carries out the entire product design phase. Therefore, as an employer, you should ensure the person you hire is proficient enough. Following are the responsibilities of a product designer, which you should be aware of: 

• Product designers conduct an array of market research. It helps them to understand the most important areas where there is a gap. 
• They are also concerned with transforming the knowledge they gained from the research into ideas and opinions. 
• Product designers gather ideas from others, like marketers, analysts, etc. They are concerned with brainstorming the gathered opinions to reach a specific conclusion. 
• They also work on defining the attributes of the product and several other restrictions to be followed for product designs.
• The product designers work closely with the design team and offer their inputs and feedback to ensure the final prototype is up to the mark. 
• They use different types of 3D modeling software like CAD and CAM to come up with the best design for the sample. This design is then sent to the production factory to create the first batch. 
• Gathering the produced samples and running different kinds of testing is also one of the major responsibilities of the product designers. 
• A product designer needs to know more about design techniques, research tools, materials, etc. 

Read Also: Five Key Psychological Principles of UX

What are the roles and responsibilities of a UX designer?

Following are the major roles and responsibilities of the UX designer:

• UX designers are concerned with transforming designs into prototypes, mockups, flowcharts, and wireframes.
• They understand the client’s requirements and facilitate the same in the form of sketches and designs to ensure they can get the green signal in one go.
• The UX designers are also concerned with providing feedback and deeper insight into the user stories and experiences.
• They analyze the designs and check the areas where the error is present. Accordingly, they work closely with the product design team to form a perfect solution for the problem. 
• UX designers solely focus on the design aspects that will help elevate the user experience and satisfy the user post-launch of the product. It can be the UI of the software, the performance of a car’s engine, and so on.
• They are responsible for planning new ideas and taking risks to ensure the prototypes are innovative and different from the competitors. 

How to hire the best product or UX design company for your business?

Regardless of whether you need the product of UI/UX design services, you need to select the best company that can live up to your expectations. Here, we have explained a few tips to help you easily select a professional.

• First of all, you need to look into the experience earned by the professional. A product of UX designer needs to be proficient enough in work and should have hands-on knowledge about the field for at least two to three years.
• Go for a reputed UX design company or the product design company. This will help you avoid most of the challenges once the product is released into the market.
• Consider the project budget. No matter how good and lucrative the claims sound, you cannot exceed the budget. 
• Ensure to check the skillset of the product and UX designers. They need to be creative and have proper market knowledge about consumer behavior.
• They must know how to analyze different datasets and utilize the same information to create the most innovative solution.

Conclusion 

Now that you know the differences between a product designer and the UX designer choose the best web and mobile app development company to get the world completed. Also, ensure the UX or the product meets the market expectations perfectly so that you don’t suffer from reduced online reputation and popularity.