What is an Industrial Designer?

An industrial designer develops the concepts for manufactured products, such as machines, medical devices, toys, electronics, and more. They combine art, business, and engineering to make products that people use every day. They work in offices in a variety of industries. Although they design manufactured products, only about 29% of industrial designers are employed directly by manufacturers.

An industrial designer will typically do the following:

• Research who will use the product and the various ways it might be used
• Sketch out ideas or create blueprints
• Use computer software to develop virtual models of different designs
• Examine materials and production costs to determine manufacturing requirements
• Work with other specialists to evaluate whether their design concepts will fill the need at a reasonable cost
• Evaluate product safety, appearance, and function to determine if a design is practical
• Present designs and demonstrate prototypes to clients for approval

Industrial designers generally focus on a particular product category. For example, some design medical equipment, while others work on consumer electronics products. Other designers develop ideas for new bicycles, furniture, housewares, or snowboards. They imagine how consumers might use a product and test different designs with consumers to see how each design looks and works.

Industrial designers often work with engineers, production experts, and marketing specialists to find out if their designs are feasible and to apply their colleagues’ professional expertise to their designs. For example, industrial designers may work with marketing specialists to develop plans to market new product designs to consumers.

Original article from careerexplorer.com