Along with traditional design skills, computer skills and industrial design engineering skills are becoming increasingly important to professional product designers. Almost all product design for modern businesses is performed on a computer, necessitating that product designers continually hone their skills in a range of programs on a variety of platforms. Industrial design engineering skills become increasingly important as the development of new materials becomes quicker and product life cycles shorten.

Traditional design skills, such as aesthetics and materials knowledge, are just as necessary as they once were, but in some cases, engineering skills may actually help designers produce more successful designs. For example, designers can often produce lighter, more aesthetically agreeable designs by using state-of-the-art materials and engineering. One real-world example of this phenomenon is in contemporary laptop design.

An Example of Successful Industrial Design Engineering

For example, Apple computer virtually initiated a new chapter in American laptop design with the introduction of the Titanium laptop a few years ago. Titanium was not just as light as the plastics that dominated the market at that point, but it also presented a finish that was widely recognized as being more professional than the plastic. By implying professionalism through design, Apple offered consumers a product that was worthy of spending all their time on.

Apple computer continues to be acknowledged as industry leaders in industrial design engineering and product development fields. Apple has even brought the physical look of its products to software-the recent version of the operating system OS X makes liberal use of the same brushed metal finish of the current line of laptop and desktop computers. By creating a unified design identity across all of their products, Apple has differentiated itself among manufacturers of personal computers as a brand that invests time not only into profitability, but also into developing a product line that ultimately respects the professionalism of its users.