INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: it’s about designing products, not factories

I was having lunch with a good friend yesterday when an old misconception showed up again. Industrial designers do not design factories, though I do have opinions about bad fluorescent lighting.

Industrial engineering is what most people are thinking of. Industrial design (ID) is about the physical product people see, touch, use, judge, carry, open, press, trust, misuse, and eventually post their weird opinions about online.

Industrial designers think about form, function, usability, materials, manufacturing, ergonomics, emotion, perception, and why your “simple” product still has 14 buttons no one understands.

ID matters because the product is usually where the customer decides what your company is worth. Not the pitch deck or roadmap, but the thing in their hand.

I hope this saves at least one designer from explaining it again at the next family gathering.