Anyone interested in starting their career as an entrepreneur has certainly spent time following, researching, and analyzing both the product market and how design innovation and trends influence the products we see around us.
A particularly noticeable trend seen commonly in successful product design is developing versions of products that are more compact, portable, or multi-functional. In this article, we provide our Florida-based industrial design firm’s take on compact products and their success in the product market.
What is a ‘Compact Product?’
If you’ve heard of the term ‘good things come in small packages,’ then you probably understand what a compact product is. A Compact Product is a term used to define a miniature or scaled-down version of an item or device we use frequently in our daily lives.
Compact products are specifically designed with the goal of maintaining the same capabilities as the normal-sized version but in a smaller format to allow for portability or improve convenience. They perform the same function just as efficiently and are usually sold at a lower price point.
The design professionals at our industrial design firm in Florida believe that compact products serve as a fantastic option for those who like to carry less on them, live in smaller spaces, or consider themselves traditional minimalists.
Compact products can also include the latest innovations in technology that help us keep our various digital devices connected so we can do more through one product. As such, many compact products include capabilities, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, to keep their functionality high within a smaller product.
Are Smaller Products Better?
Anyone who studies and observes the trends emerging in product design over the past couple of years will have likely noticed that many products are becoming smaller and smaller. While some aspects of devices do get bigger, for example, the screen size of phones, their capabilities and functionalities increase while being provided in a thinner, sleeker form.
Digital products aside, compact products are a big trend for inventors when innovating on traditional products. Compact products have a wide variety of advantages. A few include saving space, providing multi-functionality, allowing for portability, or being cost-effective as opposed to the more expensive, regularly sized item.
While our industrial design experts in Florida agree that being able to market a compact product as more efficient and portable is a clever strategy, you need to ensure during the design process that it still performs as well as its traditional design. Just because it has been redesigned to be more compact, it doesn’t mean it will necessarily perform better.
Functionality Over Fashion
It’s important to remember that the main focus of creating a compact product is to create a scaled-down, functional product. If you approach the design or redesign process solely with the objective of making a smaller and more compact product without assessing functionality, you are minimizing your chances of success in the market.
Instead of innovating on an existing product, you would simply be creating a cheaper, less efficient version – which is far less attractive to the consumer. While it might be cost-efficient to make a smaller product, if your new product design limits its overall functionality or is incompatible with its intended purpose, it would likely be best to adjust or rework your idea.
Not only will you see higher success in your product performance, but you also will run into fewer obstacles down the road. We recommend choosing to create a compact product when you are 100% sure that your product will maintain its level of functionality!
The team at our industrial design firm in Florida recommends the MVP method. Focus on one simple capability or feature that you are confident will work for a compact design rather than something complicated or multi-functional at first. This will allow you to hone and perfect your product to maximize its performance.
Find out more about the Intellipan here! It’s a perfect example of a compact product that provides convenience without compromising on quality and performance.
If you have a great new invention idea and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO today and visit our website to find out more. Or feel free to give us a call at 1-888-806-MAKO, and we can set you up on a call with our product strategist!
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!
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