I've notice that more and more people who used to call themselves UX Designers are now calling themselves Product Designers. I have a rough feel for the differences but I'm struggling to find any good articles on this and I'm wondering if somebody could help to clearly define the two roles in a way that clearly illustrates the differences.
Side thoughts: I guess it's further fragmentation or perhaps an evolution and I suppose it's not completely without value. Traditionally a Product Designer made real world objects but nowadays it is coming to mean digital products as well. That makes a lot of sense to me as they are products, it just further adds to the confusion of digital design roles to outsiders though. If I tell my friends I'm a product designer, ux designer, interaction designer, ui designer (and so on) they have no idea what I'm talking about.
p.s. I know similar questions have been asked but they are more about whether the differences matter. I say they do matter but there's a lack of clarity and definition..
Answer
This is based on my vision, so I don't know if it's correct. but FOR ME, a Product Designer is in charge of the Product Design, whether it's a material or a digital one.
This means that his tasks are more generic, and doesn't need to be a specialist in the disciplines involved in the design of the whole product, but needs to know a bit of them all. A "jack of all trades" if you wish, or a Project Manager oriented only to the product itself
However, an usability designer has a specific role, and needs to master it. In this case, usability. Not design, not programming, not marketing, not packaging, but usability (which may or may not require some of these abilities).
I think there's an interesting discussion about the need (or not) of using the same person to do usability and design or development. I think this question is resolved with the figure of Product Designer (this link is for a Product Designer explaining what she does, although it's quite "UX-y" for me)
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