Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product’s form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufacture or production of the product. It consists purely of repeated, often automated, replication, while craft-based design is a process or approach in which the form of the product is determined by the product’s creator largely concurrent with the act of its production. Product development is the process through which a mechanical product is realized from just an idea into a fully detailed entity ready for production. Responsible for the mechanical design of a new product, with specific reference to the mechanical function of the final product. May also be partially responsible for engineering of materials, graphic design, ergonomics and aesthetics of the product. Many mechanical engineers work in product design, although their title is perhaps ‘product designer’ or ‘product engineer’. However, the nature of their job is to combine their knowledge of engineering and design to create functional and marketable products.
