Product Designer
Quick Facts
Median Salary$94,177
Most Common EducationBachelor's degree
Projected 10-Year Growth+11.67%
Assessment MatchTake the Assessment
What They Do
A Product Designer is responsible for the design of a new product, or redesign of an existing product. Responsible for the aesthetics of the product but also designing how it will work, defining the problem and solving it. May be responsible for producing low-fidelity mock ups, prototypes for validation through user testing and crafting the final product accordingly.
Core Tasks:
- Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
- Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
- Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
- Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
- Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.
- Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
- Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
- Develop manufacturing procedures and monitor the manufacture of their designs in a factory to improve operations and product quality.
- Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.
- Participate in new product planning or market research, including studying the potential need for new products.
- Read publications, attend showings, and study competing products and design styles and motifs to obtain perspective and generate design concepts.
- Fabricate models or samples in paper, wood, glass, fabric, plastic, metal, or other materials, using hand or power tools.
What to expect as a Product Designer
1Earn a Bachelor's degree
40% of people achieve this level of education.
2Gain skills and experience
See Product Designer related courses on Tallo
3Land a job
1180 openings for Product Designers
Career Progression
in United States (Nation)
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