Product and service design involves conceptualizing and developing products and services from idea generation through commercialization. Product design focuses on tangible inventions and products, while service design organizes how services are delivered and customers' experiences. Key activities include translating customer needs into requirements, refining existing offerings, developing new ones, establishing quality and cost targets, and prototyping. Good product and service design is important for competitiveness, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. The design process involves introducing, growing, maturing, and eventually declining products and services through different life cycle stages and strategies.
2. What is Product and Service Design?
• Product design: the set of strategic and tactical activities,
from idea generation to commercialization, used to create a
product design. In a systematic approach, product designers
conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible
inventions and products. The product designer's role is to
combine art, science, and technology to create new products
that people can use.
• Service design: is an activity of organizing and planning
people, communication and material components in order to
improve service quality. It is the interaction between the
service provider and customers and the customers'
experience. A service is anything that is done to or for a client
and is created and delivered simultaneously.
3. What does product and service design
do?
The various activities and responsibilities of product
and service design include the following
activities:-
Translate customer wants and needs into product
and service requirements.
Refine existing product and services.
Develop new product and services.
Formulate quality goods.
Formulate cost targets.
Construct and test prototypes.
5. Importance of product design
• When compared with a competition, if you have the better product design, your product
will be chosen above competition in the market.
• Product design is a major crowd pull especially in technology markets like Laptops or
Smartphones.
• Even in heavy machinery or services, design plays a major role because it can be the
difference between efficiency and chaos.
• Design can be in various forms, and better the acceptability of the product design over
time, the better the brand built for the organization.
• Nokia was a brand built solely on the feedback “User friendly phones”. This was nothing
but a product design manoeuvre.
• Packaging plays a major role in product design as it is the last point of influence and hence
the last sales point for the company. Good packaging incorporated in product design can
make a huge difference.
8. During their useful life, many services and products go through four stages. Since
the demand can vary for each of these 4 stages, different strategies should be
applied to achieve optimum product/service performance during each stage.
The Four stages are:
1. Introduction: During the first stage, the product is introduced into the market.
Proper research and forecasting should be done to ensure the product/service is
adequate for a specific market and for a specific time. It is crucial to have a proper
amount of supply that can meet the expected demand for the product/service.
2. Growth: The second stage involves the increase in demand for the
product/service. Reputation for the product grows and an accurate forecast of
demand is needed to determine the length of time the product/service will remain
in the market. Enhancements and improvements are common in this stage.
3. Maturity: This third stage deals with the product reaching a steady demand. Few
or no improvements or product changes are needed at this stage. Forecasting
should provide an estimate of how long it will be before the market dies down,
causing the product to die out.
4. Decline: The last stage involves choosing to discontinue the product/service,
replacing the product with a new product, or finding new uses for the product.
15. Importance of Service Design.
• It maximizes the customer satisfaction as the
customers can give their feedback of the
products.
• The sellers can know about the reviews of their
product and can maintain their product
accordingly.
• The better the services provided to the
customers, the better is the after-sale services.
• It improves the relationship between the buyers
and the sellers.
16. Product vs Service.
Product
• A physical, durable
product.
• The quality of
product is easily
measured.
• The product can be
resold.
• Can be inventoried
Service
• Intangible,
perishable product.
• The quality of
service is not easily
measured.
• The service cannot
be resold
• Cannot be
inventoried.