2020 has been one of the most spectacular and unique years in recent history. It is the year that the COVID-19 pandemic withered the world, causing global economic recession and hardship to a lot of people, businesses, and governments around the world.

It has also caused a stir among Product designers who have had a huge opportunity to become better business people in 2020.

For quite some time, we’ve had a healthy competition between product managers and product designers, which fall under the Product Manager. Product designers have only been limited to what and how the product is designed, but many have not been a part of business growth thinking.

Participation in cost, risk, and revenue is minimal. 2020 has generated ‘growth designers’ – designers who tend to try experimental processes to learn how to drive business results.

Another change is how career paths for senior designers have been created. They’re more of them coming into the UX and product design world.

Comparison of current and new product design trends for 2020

The previous product design style trends were muted color palettes, asymmetrical layouts, 3D typography, abstract illustrations, and daring fonts. Complete animations, bimetal effects, open compositions, and floating/flying components also were habitually used.

2020 style trends can vary. To fulfill high demand, internet illustrations can go monochromatic. Temporary logos increase engagement and can challenge artistic movement in digital products.

What Most Professionals Fail to Realize About Being A Product Designer in The Year 2020

Product designer jobs are a trending topic these days. The concept is relatively new, so we have run into plenty of challenges and iterated on our approach over time.

Let us look at the most common misconceptions we see when our clients take on a design systems project:

1. A product with great visuals is a great product design.

Product designers need to realize that perfect pixel executions don’t address real business goals, solve real problems. They need to get over the visual misconception.

2. Thinking that product designers generate innovative and good ideas

Product designers have a responsibility to provide, sustain, and protect the creative process. Product designers now realize that instead of inventing, nurturing a concept and bringing about organizational results is much more significant than just working on the visuals.

3. Having dominating functions

Typically, there is a gap between design and engineering. 2020 sees a bridge in the gap, where the design and implementation feedback loop would spin as quickly as possible. To succeed in the long run, all functions must complement each other and perform at a high level.

4. Confusing moving metrics with actual product success

Metrics can be used to measure the health of a product, but it is not the result. Metrics remain abstractions and should not be treated as absolute indicators of success.

5. Thinking that product design is problem-solving

Product designers are not the only problem-solvers because every single department of product creation solves problems. There should be a collaboration and coordination of different departments of product management to let each one succeeds individually.

6. The product design system is a side project.

In a conducive product design system, a team whose only job is to work on the design system is important. Only then can it deliver savings, scalability, proficiency, and consistency.

Product design has a unique set of end-users who have their own unique problems and contexts of use. It requires thoughtful systems, governance processes that are inclusive, and expert collaboration between participants.

7. The biggest challenge is getting people to use the product design system.

Your biggest challenge will be getting stakeholders to agree on product design principles and how components should work. A huge point of building a product design system is to make changing components easier to iterate on the design system over time.

8. People will memorize the product design system guidelines.

Product design systems can be huge. Companies can enforce the design system guidelines during the code review process. Companies should further incorporate a change log in the product design system or automate outgoing notifications to the product designing team when changes are made.

9. Every company needs a product design system.

Not every company needs a product designing team. There are times when a single designer or a professional can handle the entire prose. Having a separate department for product designing, especially in small-sized companies, is a waste of time, effort, and money,

Must-do for a Product Designer

Below are some of the things that have gained momentum and that every product designer should do in 2020:

1. Visual Design

The UX field is known for changing technical product manager jobs from a visual delight to an influential design. The top-ranked companies are now focusing on the visuals as much as the methodologies and product thinking. The visual product design comprises UI components, color, typography, layout, white-spaces, etc.

2. Product Thinking

This is basically a reality check of the project’s idea, which depends on factors like

• What does the product look like?
• What is the product’s competitive edge over others?
• Why should users use your product?
• How does it fit into an existing ecosystem?
• What specific features will address your problem?

3. UX Design Methodology

UX Product design process comprises user research, research synthesis, low and high-fidelity wire-framing, user-flows, and interactive prototyping.

4. Product designers should take complete responsibility for their work.

In 2020 we will see product designers take responsibility for the consequences of their design choices on the world at large. We’re seeing the effects of design consequences in our daily lives in the form of misinformation, climate crisis, and anxiety about surveillance.

5. Voice UI, AI, and Machine Learning simplify the process.

Voice UI will be more aligned to gather insights and information from images, songs, and other multimedia content formats. AI and ML-powered software will bridge the designer’s gap of thinking and correct errors, such as inconsistent alignment.

6. Cross-pollination of product design

Finance will be the focus area because it’s the language of business. Selling is about being able to articulate why your product solves someone’s problem. This could be in writing, one-to-one conversations, or presentations.

Conclusion

Product Designers will work in extensive collaboration with product engineering. Product management will be implemented in a more subtle yet effective way wherein all the departments are coordinated and collaborated. This will ensure the success of the product and the holistic growth of the organization.