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Hi, I'm May.

In this course, we're going to learn about the role of design in product development.

The term product design can often be confused with industrial design.

Recently, it has become a broader term to include service design,

software design and physical product design.

We live in a world where digital or software products are so

much a part of our daily lives and experiences.

And design plays an important role in the development of these digital products such

as web and mobile apps.

We'll be learning about the different disciplines of design and

the process of designing products.

To better understand this, we'll actually be designing a mobile app.

And by the end of this course,

you'll have a basic understanding of how to design a digital product.

Companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Etsy, Spotify,

Facebook, Google and others, have incorporated design thinking into their

products by building design teams and processes into their organisation.

They believe in creating products and experiences that aren't just functional,

but are intuitive, usable, appealing and that builds trust with their users.

Many of these companies incorporate user research, user experience,

user interface, interaction and visual design into their process.

Airbnb says, as a design-founded company,

we feel the impact that design decisions have on the technology we use daily.

And believe in supporting initiatives that acknowledge how design is changing the way

we live and work.

Mint says, Jason Putorti has made the boring beautiful and

helped expand the role of software in the lives of ordinary people.

As one of the founding members of the Mint team, he's worked on creating interfaces

that inspire trust in users from the moment they lay eyes on them.

And lastly, here's a quote from Apple.

Apple puts emphasis on the overall customer experience, customer service,

after-sales support, and even retail sales service.

However, all of that would be for

nothing when the product design itself is of low quality.

As designers, we need to keep in mind that as technology continues to advance,

the process of creating digital products will evolve.

Every company is also unique in how they do things and

how their teams are structured.

But generally speaking,

most tech companies have teams that are made up of product managers, engineers,

designers, researchers, copywriters and marketers.

The product designer role can be defined in different ways, as the skill sets

of a product designer are the intersection of many different disciplines.

We'll be learning more about these different disciplines in the next video,

but in general, product designers are concerned with the experience of products

and designing of holistic solution for its users.

Now lets dive a little deeper into the different disciplines of product design.