Industrial Designers and Interaction Design

The Role of the Industrial Designer in Interaction Design:

Personally, I believe the industrial designer is a vital component in the interaction design process. This is because the industrial designer provides the link between the tangible and the intangible, the physical and digital, hardware and software. A software design team may have expert knowledge in constructing programs and interfaces, while a manufacturing group may have unparalleled knowledge of manufacturing techniques, however, without input from an industrial designer, the product is more than likely to fail. 

Overall, in this process, the industrial designer takes a holistic approach, with the focus being the user and their perception of a product. The understanding of the user and their behavior, I believe, is incredibly vital, particularly in the interaction design process.