Principles of Product Design

by Aaron Walter

Successful design-driven companies building the best products with the strongest design teams have practices in common. These extensively researched core best practices will help your team design better, faster, and more collaboratively. Combined with the power of design thinking, these product design principles will accelerate your team’s design practice.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Business

181 pages, Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Lukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short ebook about product design. Good place to start. Would not recommend if you already have some background in product design.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, relatively short read that gives you a basic understanding of product ideation and design. Wouldn’t recommend if you already have the basics.

[Lewis Ngugi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! The audiobook really made it easier to consume this content! If you want to get into Design, this is the book for you. If you still think that you have a lot to learn as a designer, this will shed some light. Great book!

[Mohamed Al-Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

left surprised by the load of useful knowledge packed in this book. i was very skeptical beforehand but was left highly impressed with the author.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this audiobook might be primarily geared towards those who are new to product design, I found it interesting and had a few takeaways that I’ll be bringing to my work.

A lot of the processes mentioned are ways of working that I’m used to, but even still it was neat to hear Aarron’s take on them, and learn from his experience.

The points about working remotely are particularly relevant during covid.

I was hoping this would be less about process and more about “product design principles” maybe more along the lines of the book “universal principles of design”, but even still I found it listenable and enjoyable.

[✨ Ida ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up to prepare myself for the product design bachelor I'm about to start in a month. While I am obviously very interested in this field and miraciously got into design school, I have to admit that I know next to nothing about design. This gave some valuable insight into the work of a designer. The principles are mostly focused around creating a productive environment for a design team - therefore I would recommend it to those who are interested about the work life of a designer and the skills you will have to acquire to make impactful designs. If you are an experienced designer this might not be very useful for you - however it could still prove useful and is worth a read, afterall it's free and quite short.

[Gregory Eakins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Principles of Product Design is a basic and generalized overview of high level design.

Most of the advice is obvious. Here's a quick sampling of notes:

Don't over-invest in features that are irrelevant to your customers.

Research your customer needs before starting your design.

Use surveys, existing data, customer interviews, and customer feedback to guide your design.

Create a product vision for your design team to unite around.

Use crude initial designs (sketches) to allow for flexibility.

It is fortunately a short read and full of further reading, so this might be a decent diving board from which to learn more about your particular niche of product design.

[Kaushik M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Principles of Product Design is a great book to start with as a beginner and a decent book if you want to review a few design topics. The author of the book explains a few concepts of design by taking examples of how the product design team functions primarily in Mailchimp, Invision, etc.

The book also talks about an important topic which is collaborating with Product Management and Engineering as a designer. Overall, the book is a quick read and can be used to brush up on knowledge about product design.

[Drew Mathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapter one includes a fascinating anecdote from the author's time as a product designer for Mailchimp, the email marketing platform. Surveys revealed a number of customers leaving Mailchimp for more complex and expensive competitors. Follow-up interviews revealed the reason.

"These customers weren't leaving because of the app's shortcomings. They were leaving because of a perception problem. They mistook the simplicity of the app for a lack of sophistication. These former customers were looking for a complex tool to make them feel like the accomplished professionals they are."

[Jaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good starting point for someone interested in design. Sections I skimmed that were more directly aimed at UX (most of the product examples were digital products), as well as sections that were nearly identical to sections of some of the other books in this series.

Not a ton of value if you're already well-read and familiar with design principles but some good external links.

Available for download from https://www.designbetter.co/books

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

En general este libro ha superado las expectativas que tenía de él, siento que se orienta más hacia los soft skills que a veces perdemos de vista cuando hablamos de diseño de producto. Lo único que no me agradó es que de repente hay algunas frases o cosas que quedan sueltas y parecen que no le dan continuidad a lo que se está explicando. Recomendado tanto para diseño de producto físico como digital.

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Product is the main economical income in the 21st century. How do a company reinvent and create a product that could compete in the world stage? Study the customer and learn from them. Bring the research and surface the data of quantitave and qualitative research in the same time to generate an idea that last a life time.

[Natalía Papadopoúlou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love all the books from InVision, including this one. They are snack-sized with opinions from lots of designers, many links if you want to dig further and lots of insights. Recommended for digital product designers for sure!

[Austin Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Design is the intentional solution to a problem within a set of constraints."

Walter emphasizes that design is not just about aesthetics but about finding intentional solutions to problems within the context of specific constraints, whether they be technical, budgetary, or other limitations.

[Rodrigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summary!

[Amir Jabbari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very brief and concise handbook that helps you grasp the processes and the latest developments in designing and prototyping your product

[Noah Brown]

Dry. Wish it had used more modern examples, and it felt like being at school again. Author tried to simplify it but ended up being unsure what age group/exp. level would get value from this.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative on how to motivate and aspire ideas in a company to get the most out of your workers.

[Utkarsh Kaushik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful guide through how product teams work from the design perspective.

[Martino Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading this useful booklet.

[Ulee ☄︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

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