The Worst Product Design Mistakes
When it comes down to your product, you just want it to work - not just in the sense of all of its features operating properly, but you also want it to resonate well with your intended audience. You want them to love what you've created. They should feel like it has enhanced their lives. Whatever it is you've made, make sure that your creation avoids a few mistakes product designers inadvertently make during the process, so everything works as well as it possibly can.
Forgetting the Audience
When you conceptualize a product, you need to make sure that you can turn it into a creation that will benefit a significant number of people. Different people will have different levels of skill, different expectations, and different problems -- playbook for these. You may have to add features you never wanted to add, or make a change to your original design that you're not particularly fond of, but if the people you intend to sell to like the changes, you should probably make them.
Going with the Flow
I just said to remember your intended market. Now I'm saying not to follow it too much. There really can be too much of a good thing. While trends are great for gauging what people like and don't like, trends can also change very rapidly. Today's great new thing may be passé tomorrow and completely annoying next week. If everyone is doing it, consider why they're doing it. It's very possible that the reason is... because everyone else is doing it.
Letting Your Features Creep
Creativity is great. It's what brought you to this point. A mind brimming with ideas will never run out of things to do and innovations to make, but it's important to know when something is done. While adding some proverbial bells and whistles can be beneficial, adding too many may not only clutter your original design, but it may also drive up costs until it becomes unfeasible or even unprofitable to manufacture the project in the first place. It's often easier to add more later than to take away something unnecessary afterward.
Working Alone
All of the above can really be exacerbated when no new ideas from outside are introduced. People come from various experiences and many of them can add things to a project that not even its creator had never imagined. As you build a team to product the final product, you'll begin to see what role each person can play when you're ready to roll the project out, giving you a firm foundation on which to build a company.
Developing a new product is complicated to say the least. You'll have to make a lot of quick decisions that will have long-lasting ramifications. Knowing and avoiding a few common mistakes can make the process a great deal smoother.