Digital Product Designer Skills, Role & Responsibilities
Who is a product designer, what their job responsibilities are, and why is digital product designer considered to be one of the most difficult professions in the digital sphere? Let’s figure it out.
What is a digital product designer?
A product designer is a more complex profession than you could imagine. This specialist identifies product problems, proposes security solutions, and implements changes based on the product’s business strategy.
The product designer is responsible for developing a product from idea to launch. They analyze user behavior, make critical product decisions, and create design layouts based on metrics. They learn to think through a business strategy, work with an IT team, research, and design user-friendly design systems.
Key roles and responsibilities of digital product designer
There is a stereotype that a product designer is someone who just draws product designs. In fact, a product designer is a sought-after generalist who must combine at least three key spheres to succeed in their roles.
UX/UI
Digital product designers are responsible for the quality of user experience (regular feedback from users, conducting UX research, developing ideas for improving the product, studying user demand and so much more.
Technology
A great designer is also a savvy technology architect possessing the knowledge of many IT technologies, methodologies, the development of optimal strategic ideas for technical problem solving, and others.
Digital
An understanding of the digital world its trends and risks, and being a skillful digital expert will be a plus. Designers have the ability to understand a digital product, pick the monetization models, strategies, and understand the main metrics of product viability and so much more.
The skills of a digital product designer
Digital product design specialists are having those skills for their careers that cannot be necessarily related to their work subject. Both soft and hard skills are not limited to a standard skill set of a product designer and the sky’s the limit in practicing and making perfect. The most common skills will include:
Pro-activity
This profession includes a set of competencies that not everyone can master. You need to be a frequent watcher, observer, and creator, have skills in googling and researching, analyzing the market, and looking for new technology trends to improve the user interface, etc. Also, specialists in the field of product development should never be lazy, because the success of the product in the market is their responsibility. If a product designer does not learn all the technologies that have emerged, their company clients will be left behind with their multiple projects.
Communication
A product designer must have a good level of soft skills. Soft skills here may include competent speech, the ability to make strong reports and presentations, to present customer-oriented projects well, to communicate, etc. A product designer is the only person who spends hours and days working on every detail of a project. And if they can’t describe their thoughts and process effectively and efficiently, stakeholders may not listen to them and delay the decision-making process, then all the team’s work will be in vain.
Responsibility
It is the product designer who has the final say on what the final product design will be. They need to define the goals of the user, business, technical capabilities, brand, and visual part and lead the project in the right direction. So, this is a role with a high responsibility level and standards.
HTML and CSS
A product designer must understand the layout process since they are working on the website and app creation. Understanding HTML and CSS allows products to fit the market better and faster. Moreover, the layout is an important element of user experience: without understanding web development, there will be no quality solution. Also, understanding the layout helps designers to create a concept that can definitely be applied in a network reality.
Design
UX research is a practical guide for a web designer. Testing a site is a slow process that requires immersion, patience, and certain skills. Without UX research, the success rate of the final product will plummet.
Copywriting
People will forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel, which you may achieve with words. Picking the right words to fit the design concepts means bringing the idea to life. What the user sees and reads in the interface affects how they feel about your product before the impressions from the pictures they see. And this, in turn, affects consumer decisions to buy. This is why UX copywriting is also essential. And skilled designers have the idea of it.
Also, mind that the skills are not limited here, people in digital product design may have extra knowledge and form many other skills in both the neighboring sphere or within the chosen profession which will be a plus for their careers.
How to become a digital product designer?
Since designers are working in a highly competitive niche and in an extremely changeable market, there are multiple training options for a product designer from scratch, as well as much food for thought for seniors who want to develop professionally. They often choose either way:
Self-study: YouTube videos, books, workshops, tutorials, etc. These are professional events available for every level of designer.
Online learning & networking: you can take the course on one of the educational platforms. Such studies are designed by professionals for people with no special training or will some basic knowledge so they will suit most people. Usually, online learning emphasizes practice, which allows you to accomplish portfolios and get a job immediately after training quickly.
Conclusion
Now it’s clear that digital design specialists must have many skills and an understanding of digital product design technology and trends. The main task of a product designer is to help a digital product achieve success, which means flexible combining many roles and being able to take responsibility for a project. The product designer must know how to make users feel the right emotions while interacting with the products they create. Therefore, the skills are not limited, and there is plenty of space for practicing and achieving perfection. To ensure it, hire us and make a difference with the top-quality digital product design team.
