Understanding the Differences: Industrial Design vs. Product Design

Industrial design shapes how a physical product looks, feels and is used: its form, ergonomics, materials, colour and finish. Product design is the broader job of deciding what the product is and making it work, covering the user’s problem, the function, the engineering, the cost and the market. Industrial design is one part of product design for physical goods, and both have to end in a design a factory can build.

The terms overlap, and in software “product design” usually means designing digital products and user interfaces. This article uses both in the hardware sense: designing physical products that will be manufactured at volume.

What is industrial design?

Industrial design is the discipline that decides the external form of a mass-produced product and how a person interacts with it. An industrial designer works on:

• Form and proportion. The shape, the size and how the product sits on a desk, in a hand or in a kitchen.
• Ergonomics and use. Grip, reach, button placement, how a lid opens, how it is carried, cleaned and stored.
• Colour, material and finish (CMF). The plastics, metals, textures and coatings that set how the product looks and wears over time.
• Brand language. Visual features that make a range of products recognisable as one brand.

Good industrial design accounts for manufacturing from the first sketch. Draft angles, parting lines, wall thickness and where screws and seams show are all industrial design decisions as much as engineering ones.

What is industrial product design?

Industrial product design is industrial design applied to a specific manufactured product, carried from concept through to a design released for production. The term is used when the same team handles the form and works closely with engineering, rather than handing over attractive renders that later prove difficult to build.

The goal of industrial product design is a product people want to use that can be made consistently, at volume and at the target cost. Appearance alone does not meet that goal, and neither does a design that works on the bench but cannot be moulded or assembled reliably.

What is product design?

Product design covers the whole product, from the problem it solves to the version that ships. For a physical product it usually takes in:

• Research and definition. Who the user is, what the product must do, what competitors sell and the target retail price.
• Concept and industrial design. The form and the user experience described above.
• Engineering design. Mechanical design, electronics, firmware where needed, tolerances and material selection.
• Design for manufacture and assembly. Simplifying parts, processes and assembly steps so the product can be built consistently.
• Prototyping and testing. Proving fit, function, durability and compliance before tooling.

Industrial design vs product design: the key differences

• Scope. Industrial design covers the form and the user’s interaction with the product. Product design covers the whole product, including function, engineering and commercial targets.
• Questions answered. Industrial design asks how the product should look, feel and be used. Product design asks what the product should be, whether it works, and whether it can be sold at a profit.
• Deliverables. An industrial designer delivers sketches, renders, appearance models, CMF specifications and surface CAD. A product design team delivers a full design package: 3D CAD, 2D drawings with tolerances, the bill of materials, and tested prototypes.
• Who does the work. Industrial designers, often trained in design schools. Product design teams combine industrial designers with mechanical and electrical engineers and, for production, manufacturing engineers.

Industrial designer vs product designer

In hardware companies the job titles are used loosely. A “product designer” at a small consumer brand may do industrial design and some mechanical CAD. At a software company the same title means user interface work. Judge a designer by their portfolio and the stage of work they hand over, not by the title.

Industrial design vs industrial engineering

These are often confused. Industrial design is about the product. Industrial engineering is about the production system: line layout, work methods, cycle times and efficiency in the factory.

Product design and manufacturing

Many of a product’s costs are set at the design stage: the number of parts, the materials, the tooling each part needs and how long it takes to assemble. A change that costs little on a CAD model can mean recutting a hardened steel mould once tooling exists.

That is why the hand-off between design and manufacturing matters more than the label on either discipline. A design manufacturing review before tooling checks that the industrial design and the engineering can be produced as intended. The method is covered in the guide to design for manufacturing, and the next stage in product prototype development.

Which do you need for your product?

• A working prototype that looks unfinished or is awkward to use. You need industrial design.
• An idea, or a product that does not yet work. You need product design and engineering, with industrial design as part of it.
• A finished design ready for the factory. You need a design for manufacture and assembly review, then tooling and production.

For an OEM product, where the brand owns the design, the industrial design and engineering files become part of the brand’s intellectual property. Keep them under your control and share them with the factory under an agreement. The model is explained in what OEM manufacturing is, and the protection side in the guide to protecting industrial designs.

How Shield Works approaches product design and manufacturing

Shield Works is a British-owned, Western-managed manufacturer in Zhuhai, China, and part of the C2W Group. Its DFX team of engineers and designers takes projects in at any stage, from a concept sketch or CAD file to a working prototype. It provides mechanical CAD support, tolerance analysis, DFM and DFA reviews, and prototyping with 3D printing, before the design goes to tooling and production in the same facility.

Design data is restricted to authorised engineering staff, and each client’s project is kept separate from every other, as set out on how we protect your IP. Production then runs through the manufacturing and precision assembly teams.

If you are planning a new product, submit your project brief with any sketches, CAD files or prototypes you have. We review every submission and come back to you if the project is a fit.