What I learned as a product designer from the project
From reflection of this project I think I understand myself as a product designer a lot better. As well as learned a lot more on how to design for the market.
For the market side of things I have learned I need to do more learning on how websites work as it will be key for me to have this digital understanding going forward into a workplace. Found out how to get a product from idea to production to marketing in a short period of time, a bit of a crash course that can be applied to a bigger project with longer development.
Learned a little about the laws with selling and business, I’m allowed to earn a certain amount each year that won’t be taxed but this is connected to any other earnings I get from other jobs. As well as to keep tight records of all spending because once I do pay tax I can claim up to 5 years back on expenses and stuff which will help reduce tax. Also I can be an investor in my own business, but I need to set up a separate bank account for my business to do this, this also means I can pay myself back the investment which means it won’t be taxed. Furthermore I can pay myself from the business account, so I can end up paying myself for my time out of the profits. Some of this is still hard to wrap my head around but on the scale I’m working it isn’t something to focus on but will help prepare me for the future, to understand these concepts on a small scale before I go into a bigger business is key.
Another key lesson I learned was about having a bread-and-butter product, one key seller that then lets you explore other options, but it is key to have this one stable product that you are known for as to better market yourself in the long run.
One thing that popped up with the display of the shelf was to be careful to not make it too full or empty, to balance the line and be ware of how your product is seen as to better market yourself. I marketed myself on my colours and shapes, as well as the functional appeal but that is hard to show visually.
When it comes to the lessons I learned about myself as I designer I learned the importance of documenting your full progress as a designer as there are many times I lost track or got distracted with other ideas which lead to a rapid development of the project but there was more research and understanding I could have done as well as sketches that could have led to other answers. More onto this I’m dyslexic and with this my brain works more visually with creative thinking, I find this hard to manage when it comes to keeping up with showing my working, expressing thoughts, and just generally showing how hard I’ve worked.
Explaining my thought process is often a big challenge, as it can look like I’ve made big leaps and assumptions. These leaps are when my brain connects two seemingly unrelated things, such as land yards and necklaces, what those symbolise and how to me they preform the same function in relation to my design. These assumptions are when my brain has stored information in vast quantities that I have a good understanding of so to me I make decisions quickly based on my own library of knowledge having reasons but finding it hard to then explain the reasoning accurately as I don’t have real world sources to back up what to me is truth. This is something that from doing the project has become more obvious to me as something to be aware of, that as much as I know it to be the right answer I should still do the leg work in finding these sources and lay down these links so when other people look at the work they can clearly see where and how I got to the answers I have put down.
Another thing I have solidified in my thoughts as a product design is I have a keen passion to help people, especially learning/socially disabled people, I don’t feel like disabled is the right word for these people as they are often very capable they just require support to help them flourish and achieve great things. But this passion is something I want to take forward into fourth year, I was to use my skills and perspective on this issue to do some good in the world and make something that will truly help and make someone’s quality of life better.