Reflection Point: Product Design — UXA

• What makes a product good rather than great?

Product design is the difference between a good product and a great product. A good product should be easy for a user to learn. There should be little effort for the user to understand how to navigate and use the product to get a desired outcome. A good product should also make a need or want easier to do and the product should be more desirable to use. For example, the iPhone does this with so many things: camera, texts (instead of email or phone calls), apps to help with daily efficiency (calendar, planner, reminders, fitness apps, cooking recipe apps, etc.). These are things we take for granted now with the technology at our fingertips. This is what makes the iPhone a great product instead of just a good product. It does multiple good things that make it a great product.

• What personally attracts you to product design?

This question is hard to answer with a short answer, but I’ll try to simplify it. I love beautiful designs. This ranges from the interface of the iPhone to a landscape of the ocean with a beautiful gradient colored sky with the contrast of the water from sky. I get drawn in by design that is easy to look at and is simple even if there is complexity to it. Color theory and the psychology of user experience is probably my biggest draw to product design. Those two things to me are important to all product design and how good or great the product will be.

• What is a digital product that you can’t live without? What problems does it solve for you?

I would have to say Spotify. Before Spotify it was Pandora and before that was iTunes and before that was Napster/Kazaam/ (insert any streaming music service here). Music has always been a big part of my life. Now that Spotify is so accessible on my watch, phone, and laptop I almost always have music or now podcast going throughout my day. The problem it solves for me is it let me get rid of 100s of compact discs to create more room. It also made it easy to find music for any mood. The interface of Spotify is great with suggested playlists of music you know and new music suggestions, search is categorized in genres which makes it easy to navigate, and overall look is appealing with the black interface with green trim. It overall is a great product that millions of people use.