Design success vs. Market success

Excerpts from a sprawling Twitter conversation about what it means for something to be “well designed.”

Hunter Walk got the ball rolling with this question:

Can a product that few people use ever be considered “well designed?” Are acceptance & scale prerequisites for great design or challenges to design?

Re: scale

  1. “Expensive stuff, Bugatti, Stradivarius, etc…can be well designed”, and “a product suitable for a micro niche of users can still exhibit elegance in its design.” via @rfradin and @pricj004
  2. “Design is intended for commerce, scale, acceptance. Otherwise it’s art.” “Successful design is at the intersection between art and success.” via @oiselle_sally and @beltzner
What about products that tons of people use that are obviously terribly “designed”? via @pmarca
  1. “Function > design works in tech, maybe not fashion.” via @kyleverywhere
  2. “Design is bunk. Utility is all. Evidence: Google. Craigslist. Ebay. Twitter.” via @markjeffrey
  3. Per BJ Fogg’s model, “Behavior = Motivation x Ability x Trigger. Ability ~ design. You can have poor design win if motivation is really high or there are a lot of natural triggers.” per @edwk
  4. Design is how the product works and not just how it looks! Looks great, doesn’t work well = fail! Looks OK (not too ugly/repulsive), but works great = success (like Craigslist). Craigslist’s UI may not be the best … but they solved a pain, built a great community! via @delip
Do we therefore know good design by its resulting market success? Does success mean the design was good?
  1. “Market success can be driven by many other factors.” “Design is not an absolute—it is relative to utility, price, functionality, necessity, and other contexts.” via @jaffri and @stevesi
  2. “Success means the product delivered value. Design is often a contributor or key. Success isn’t defined as scale.” via @satyap
“Is scaling a stress test that a design must pass to be considered great”
  1. Most important part of good design is making something people want/need. Get that wrong and nothing else matters. Craigslist solved massive problem in a way that scaled. Network effect negated economic incentive for good UI/UX.
  2. For a product to gain traction, utility of design must be > utility of incumbent x network effect factor. So IMO, a product can be “well designed” and not gain traction if switching costs/network effect too strong.” via @TJRoss2411

ps: For more on design vs. market success, see this post from Mills Baker: “Losing Our Seat at the Table”