Digital Product Design vs. UX Design: How They’re Different & Why It’s Important
If you have ever wondered what the difference between digital product design and user experience design is, then you have found the right article for you. Plenty of people confuse the two with each other, and we are here to clear it up. There aren’t any significant differences that we can tell you to make the differences clear; there are a variety of more minor differences that you will learn about as you read this article.
First, let’s look at the questions that each of these terms tries to help make the design process successful.
Digital Product Design
- What will the digital product look like?
- How can the product’s design process be improved?
- Does this product support our business’s goals?
- How will the product evolve?
User Experience Design
- Will users enjoy interacting and using the product?
- How does this product help get rid of the user’s pain points?
- Does the product effectively help the user?
- How can the user’s enjoyment of the product be improved?
It should be clear now that digital product design is focused on the product’s connection with the user and the business. At the same time, the user experience design focuses on the product’s relationship with its usability and functionality.
What Are The Differences Between Digital Product Designers And User Experience (UX) Designers?
Knowing the differences between the terms is essential, and since there aren’t any significant differences, it can be challenging to understand what sets them apart. That’s why we will try to be as transparent as possible when talking about this.
User Experience Designer
The user experience designer will focus on the product’s usability and how the users interact with it. They will ensure that the product can fulfill the user’s needs and help them achieve their goals. They want to improve the product’s functionality, accessibility, and usability.
A UX designer is a part of the product’s design from the start. From the research stage to the development of the product. The sole focus of the UX designer will be to ensure the product can help the users and take away their pain points, making the product user-friendly.
Responsibilities of a UX designer:
- Knowledgeable about user research, usability testing, interviewing target users, and more.
- Ensuring the target users can use the product quickly and intuitively to achieve their goals.
- Understand how users will interact with the product to improve its usability to give users a great experience.
- Creating wireframes and prototypes for the products to communicate their designs.
- Designing end-to-end user experiences tailored to the target users based on the research.
Digital Product Designer
The digital product designer is more flexible than a UI/UX designer and can take on different responsibilities based on what is needed for the product. The product designer focuses on the product’s design process, the development of the product, the cost, branding, and other business areas.
Product designers will build teams to help solve different problems the product has caused. They will help the teams during the launch process of the development and coordinate with marketing to ensure everything happens as planned.
Responsibilities of a product designer:
- We manage the people and teams working on the product and effectively communicate the development’s goals and needs.
- It is monitoring the product after its release and making changes to ensure a high return on investment.
- Collecting feedback about the product and making changes to help it become more successful.
- We are creating new products using various tools and remaining up to date with the latest standards in the industry.
- Have an all-inclusive understanding of product design.
- Creating wireframes, prototypes, and more for the product to help improve its design.
Why Are They Important?
By now, you should have realized that these roles are essential as they help contribute directly to the success of a product. Every user experience design agency uses these roles to ensure the products they work on giving users what they want.
If you need to focus more on the business area of the product and the design, then a product designer can provide the help that a UI/UX designer may not be able to. This is one way to decide between needing a product or UX designer. Knowing the differences will help you make the right decision. If you hire a user experience design agency, they will decide what role will best suit the job.
If you need to focus on the product’s design and usability, then hiring a UX design company will be what you need to get their UX designers to work on your product and give you what you need. Make sure the UX design company has experience working on products as you have. This increases the chances of success, and the designers will complete the work faster.
Conclusion
UX designers and digital product designers have many similar responsibilities. Usually, the product designer will need to do more as their scope of work is more significant than a UI/UX designer. This is because the digital product designer needs to think about other business areas like branding and the cost of the product. Both roles are essential, and their responsibilities can change based on the product they are working on.
This article should have clarified that the product designer focuses on the product’s design process, product development, cost, branding, and other business areas. At the same time, the UX designer focuses on the product’s usability and how the users interact with it.
– Thanks for reading!
