Product design is a cutting-edge area of research. Over the last few years, many papers have been presented dealing with product design. The review focuses on processing of crystalline solids with a particular filed of application in mind and shows how crystallization can be used as tool to generate materials with particular properties and how to tailor these properties by crystallization. The fact that crystallization is a tool for product design will be highlighted by 4 selected examples, dealing with roughness and shelf life of fertilizer granules (case 1 and 2), with micro container as carrier system and, finally, with an alternative tablet forming technique for heat sensitive materials. (C) 2010 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.