What Are the Differences Between Product and Service Design?

Product design and service design are two terms which, while related, have distinct differences. Product design is the process of creating a physical product that has a functional purpose.

It is the practice of designing a product with the intention to make it aesthetically pleasing as well as make it efficient and effective. Service design, on the other hand, is how organisations provide services to their customers. It is about understanding customer needs, creating experiences for them and coming up with solutions that will improve their satisfaction.

Design Process

The processes involved in product and service design are also different. Product design requires a lot of brainstorming, research and testing in order to create a product that meets customer needs.

The process usually involves sketching out ideas, prototyping them and then testing them with potential customers. Service design is more focused on customer experience. It involves understanding customer needs and developing solutions that will meet those needs.

Design Objective

The objectives of product design are to create something that looks attractive, functions well and can be produced efficiently at an affordable cost. Service design focuses on creating an experience for customers that meets their expectations and provides a positive outcome for them. This could include making sure the service is easy to use or providing personalised customer support.

Design Skills

Product Design:
Product designers need to have an understanding of materials, manufacturing processes and engineering principles in order to create products that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional. They need to be able to work closely with engineers in order to come up with innovative solutions for manufacturing products at scale.

Service Design:

Service designers must be able to think creatively in order to come up with solutions that will solve customer problems or enhance their experience when using a service.

They need an understanding of psychology, sociology and economics in order to understand customers’ needs better as well as develop effective strategies for delivering services.

Conclusion

Product design focuses on creating physical products from scratch while service design focuses on improving customer experiences by understanding their needs better. In order for both practices to be successful, designers need different sets of skills depending on what they’re designing for – products or services – and must have an understanding of the processes involved in each type of design work.