UX Design vs Product Design: The Comparison

With the rapidly growing technology and ever-changing user expectations, design has become one of the most important and complicated aspects of any business website or product. The design is the most determining factor that drives the success of any business in today’s marketplace. There has been a long ongoing debate between UX design and Product Design as they often seem to be confused with each other. 

According to the latest statistics, 38% of website visitors will leave a website if its design is unattractive. Therefore, to look good, all design positions are responsible for the same thing.  

UX also refers to the feeling people get when they are on a website. In other words, the way they feel about the brand and its products on the site. 

As reported in a study, it is found that 85% of B2B customers and 79% of B2C customers believe their experience with a brand on the website matters more than what it produces.

Though both UX design and product design have various similarities in terms of skills and interests, however, there are some differences. 

Well, in this article, we will make a detailed comparison between UX design and product design and help you know the differences and similarities between each of them and further help you choose the right one for you. 

What is UX Design?

User experience (UX) design is done with the intent of creating or designing a product that offers an outstanding and meaningful experience to users and meets their expectations. It is the whole process of designing the product based on end-user needs and integrating it with other most essential aspects of branding, marketing, usability, and function.

To ensure the product delivers a smooth and flawless experience, a UX designer focuses more on the user’s mindset and crafts the design accordingly. They completely focus on each aspect of product development such as idea & concept, design, usability, function, and sometimes branding and marketing. Their main focus is on user satisfaction and ensuring the product addresses the needs of end-users by enhancing the usability of the product. 

Knowing the user’s mindset is the main role of a UX designer as they have to deal with user testing and prototyping. They ensure the product is well-optimized and provide the best user experience across all devices and platforms. 

What is Product Design?

Product design is the process of imagining, designing, and iterating products that meet the ever-growing needs of users and deliver an outstanding experience that surpasses their expectations. A product designer focuses on understanding customer needs and creating the interactive design of a product from start to finish. 

It includes the complete process, including doing market research, determining the problems, creating the product, and finding out the best solution when required to solve end-user problems and make the product easier to use for them. They often work on the most important aspects of products that result in a creative and appealing design for successful branding and marketing. 

UX Design vs Product Design: The Similarities 

Designing for products and designing for the user experience require similar skills that are rooted in the thinking of a design. As a part of design thinking, it involves understanding the user’s needs first, challenges and problems that can be raised, and redefining them based on the user's needs. 

Let’s take a look at a few similarities between UX design and product design: 

• Both designers must emphasize creating a more functional product for the end-user during the UX design and product design stages of the design process. 

• It is not uncommon for designers in UX and product design to focus on quantifying and analyzing data, and that is a core similarity between the two. 

• Both UX Design and Product Design need the designer to assess and analyze data.

• In addition to this, the tools and programs they use to do it are also similar in most cases. 

• Due to their similarities, the titles are sometimes used interchangeably for both UX design and product design. 

UX Design vs Product Design: The Main Difference 

The job description of product design and UX design may be similar in some respects, but different in others because companies have different requirements for their designers. Despite the fact, that they are both concerned with aspects of the product's usage, their work domains are somewhat different. 

Take a look at the following differences between UX design and product design: 

• The UX designers concentrate more on the specific aspects of the product's use, while the product designers are more concerned with more general questions. 

• UX designers focus on determining the problems, while product design finds out the solution. 

• Compared to UX designers, product designers often possess a wide range of skills and thus have more responsibilities within an organization. 

• The main difference is that the product designer prioritizes the needs of the business, and the UX designer makes sure users' needs come first. 

• A product designer would center his or her thoughts on the compatibility of the designing process with the company's long-term goals whereas a UX designer would focus solely on user interface problems.

• The responsibility for product designers to consider other situations is therefore different as it requires them to consider other scenarios in the design and has a big impact on how the work is done.

• UX designers typically make use of design and testing tools, while product designers are more concerned with working with various tools for design and development. 

Job Requirements for Product Designer

The following job requirements are usually required for product designer roles:

• Require a degree in engineering, manufacturing, software design, and other related fields

• Experience with designing various types of modeling and software

• Keen attention to detail with creative design and color palettes

• Solid experience with product design

• Should have time management skills

• The ability to communicate with developers

Job Requirements for UX Designer 

The following qualifications are likely to be looked for in an ideal candidate when hiring a UX designer:

• Require a degree in computer science, visual design, or other related fields

• Should have good communication skills to better collaborate with developers and clients. 

• Should have storyboarding and website mapping abilities

• Experience with UX design or usability testing

• Familiar with various design tools including Sketch and Illustrator

Job Responsibilities of Product Designer

The responsibilities of a product designer include the following: 

• The use of various design software is necessary for creating new products and features.

• Collect feedback from users and implement changes to products when required.

• Responsible for managing the design team and communicating goals, needs, and deadlines to interested parties.

• Assess the needs of the customer and present ideas or new features for existing products

• To ensure that the ROI on the product remains positive, monitor it after its initial release.

Job Responsibilities of UX Designer

UX designers are responsible for performing the following tasks:

• Preparing prototypes for the latest products, features, or websites

• Conduct a survey of customers and gather feedback based on user experience and then make further improvements accordingly.  

• Perform testing of current products and prototypes then give feedback on its usability and user experience.

• Examine quantitative metrics including product usage reports and Net Promoter Scores

• Improve product usability by using storyboards to communicate possible designs.

Product Design vs UX Designer:  Salary Comparison

On average, the salary of a product designer in the U.S. was $104,000 per year. From the 4,000 product designers who responded to Glassdoor's survey, the highest salary was $171,000 and the lowest was $64,000. 

On the other hand, the average salary for a UX designer in the United States is $103,000. From the 371 UX designers surveyed by Glassdoor, the highest salary was $140,000, while the lowest salary was $75,000. 

UX Design vs Product Design: Which one is right for you?

There are some similarities between product design and UX design if you're choosing a career path between them. Both require you to solve problems creatively and both require an understanding of product strategy and design. Both product design and UX design require solid knowledge and understanding of powerful product design tools and methodologies used in the process.

In the event that you are undecided as to which career path is right for you, it is best to review the information above to find out the main distinctions between these two roles and then decide which one is best for your career goal. If not, both roles have enough similarities that you could choose either one.

Conclusion 

Thus, product designers create the design of a product from start to finish, while user experience (UX) designers make decisions based on the data and research gathered about that product based on user experience. An experienced UX designer may be able to do both job duties if needed, but it depends on how big or small the company is. Product designers will often work alongside UX designers.

Additionally, both product design and UX design go beyond just making users satisfied and happy with the product. Delivering an exceptional customer experience means creating a product with a strong market presence which makes your product more secure at lower development costs resulting in increasing customer loyalty and increasing ROI.