It’s 7 a.m. The alarm goes off. Blindly you reach out from under the covers, flailing your arm in the hopes of hitting the tiny snooze button before the clock hits the floor. Don’t you wish someone had thought about ways to make this part of your morning a little easier? From the moment you wake up to the time your head hits the pillow, you’ve used a wide variety of products designed to help you get through your day.
 Have you ever wished you could change a product to make it work better? Or had a great idea about how a product should look? Industrial Designers do just that. They’re the people who design mass-produced products, from alarm clocks to cars, phones to CAT scans, computers to furniture and more. They determine the way a product looks, feels and how well it functions. Industrial Designers develop products you use everyday.
Industrial Designers use a variety of methods to design products, from sketches to clay or foam moldings, to computer programs developed for design. How they develop a product depends on the type of product and who will be using it.  By the time it reaches the shelves, it’s been molded, sculpted and worked over many times by the designer. Time Magazine reports that Industrial Design is one of the 15 hottest professions in terms of job growth and compensation.
So how do you become a designer? First, you can get a head start where you are now—classes such as visual arts, psychology, physiology, physics and business and marketing can help you develop some of the necessary skills. Because you will need a bachelor’s degree, check out the college prep studies in your school. As you look into college options, look for a program that will fit your interest and abilities. Some schools focus on form and visual appearance while others focus more on problem-solving or other perspectives of Industrial Design. IDSA is a good resource for schools that offer programs in Industrial Design and what style of program is offered at each.
What is an Industrial Designer?
 Industrial design is the profession that determines the form of a manufactured product, shaping it to fit the people who use it and the industrial processes that produce it. Industrial Designers work to make our lives more comfortable, pleasurable and efficient. By studying people at work, at home and in motion, they create products like office chairs that promote proper posture, kitchen tools that are comfortable even for elderly hands and toys that provide safe play and learning for all children. In particular, Industrial Designers deal with the parts of a product that humans interact with, striving to give universal access to products that are ecologically responsible and safe to use. Also, they give a product that distinctive elegance that makes us want it.
The Industrial Designer’s work goes beyond products to include packaging, exhibits, and interiors and, in some cases, corporate identity. Moreover, with information technology becoming increasingly complex, Industrial Designers work to simplify the software that drives so many products.
Who hires Industrial Designers?
Industrial Designers work in a wide range of industries such as transportation design, medical products, consumer electronics, special effects for the entertainment industry, computer animation, furniture design, and environmental design including building interiors and signs. |
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 Industrial Designers look for innovative and better ways to do things. They approach their work as problem solving, asking, “How do people want to travel?” rather than, “Let’s build another car.” To answer such questions, Industrial Designers explore a broad range of alternatives through drawings and models, steadily refining their designs as they test them against the user’s needs and manufacturer’s capabilities.
The term “Industrial Design” was coined early in the 20th century to describe the creative role previously performed by an individual artisan for mass-produced goods. In keeping with the complexity of mass production, Industrial Designers work with other professions involved in conceiving, developing and manufacturing products, including marketing experts, mechanical, design and manufacturing engineers and software programmers to name a few. Together with human factors specialists, Industrial Designers conduct usability testing to ensure that a product meets user needs, wants and expectations, and they often rearrange internal components to make products easier to manufacture, assemble, service and recycle.
 Preparation for practicing Industrial Design requires a baccalaureate degree in that field. Industrial design links knowledge about technology and the visual arts with knowledge about people. In addition to a thorough understanding of the physical sciences, engineering principles, ergonomics, aesthetics and industrial materials and processes, Industrial Designers should be well-grounded in the social sciences, such as psychology, sociology and anthropology, and the communication arts, such as photography, video, print and electronic media.
What kinds of skills do I need?
 Industrial Design offices list these as the top 5 skills:
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Ability to convey concepts with quick sketches
- Good verbal and written communication skills
- Computer proficiency in vector based or 3-D programs
- Mechanical aptitude and basic understanding of how things work
What career opportunities does Industrial Design offer?
Wondering what kind of careers there are in Industrial Design? You have to check out our list of careers that you can enjoy. Go now
What schools offer Industrial Design programs?
Different schools have different approaches to the Industrial Design education. If you are interested in the Industrial Design network, please contact the universities listed in our database for information.
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