Product Designers
Overview
Introduction
Product designers oversee the process of developing new products or improving existing ones from ideas on paper or screen to finished product. In recent years, the field of product design has been more closely associated with tech products, but product designers supervise the creation or improvement of any type of product—from furniture and automobiles, to kitchen appliances and solar panels. This field is sometimes confused with user experience design. User experience designers focus on the usability and accessibility of a product,...
Quick Facts
Median Salary
Employment Prospects
Minimum Education Level
Experience
Skills
Personality Traits
Earnings
Product designers earned average salaries of $105,448 in 2021, according to GlassDoor.com. Earnings ranged from $64,000 to $173,000 or more.
Indeed.com reports lower ($96,579) average salaries for product designers. The job-search site says that the most common benefits for workers in this field include health, dental, and vision insurance; paid sick time; access to a health savings acco...
Work Environment
Product designers typically work in traditional business offices or design studios. Their work area may be situated in close proximity to production areas in order to facilitate easy interactions with manufacturing workers.
Designers typically work a standard 40-hour week, Monday through Friday but—like workers in other professions—they may need to work at nights and on weekends to meet ...
Outlook
Employment for industrial designers (a career that is related to that of product designer) is expected to grow by 6 percent from 2020 to 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Companies have realized that creating attractive, user-friendly products gives them an edge over their competition, so there will continue to be good demand for product designers.