Function

This is about the way the product performs - what it does and to what quality standards. Unless it can do what customers want, it won't sell. When a designer is involved from the beginning, they can advise on how the product will work, and help plan the way it is made.

Ideally, designers are given a design brief or specification that sets out the standards and criteria for the product. But the chances are that the brief will ask for everything to be perfect. And that's not always possible, so the designer has to blend the various elements of the design mix - performance, quality, cost, durability, style and appearance - to meet customer requirements. So it's always a compromise, which is why product design and development isn't just left to an individual designer.

Getting the balance right involves finance (for the cost), marketing (to make sure it gives customers what they want) and production (to check they can make it) along with other people and departments as well, when they have a contribution to make.

The designer works with these people in a team because no one person - whether they're a brilliant inventor or a production wizard - knows everything or can do it all themselves. As industrial engineering, electronics and manufacturing become more complex, there has to be a team that includes everyone who has a part to play