Here’s Why You Should Care About Your Website’s Design
Good design, which is clear about its intentions, helps make more money than bad design. This applies to web design as much as it applies to branding, or to product design. It’s not complicated, and it bears out in the real world time and time again. Let me explain what I mean by comparing the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U.
A few months ago, I bought a Nintendo Switch. If you haven’t heard of it, the Switch is Nintendo’s follow-up for the Wii U (which was in turn a follow-up for the Wii, which you’re probably very familiar with).

The Switch is phenomenal. It’s a home console, which means it sits plugged into your television. But if you’re on the go, the system becomes a portable tablet with detachable controllers. Suddenly, it’s like a Game Boy: you can stick it in a bag and take it anywhere.
I’ve been playing this thing nonstop. I’ve taken it travelling, played it in bed, and played it on the couch while my wife uses the big TV to watch a movie. Its build quality is amazing. It’s utterly seamless.
The console wakes from sleep almost instantly — as fast as my iPhone does. And as soon as it wakes up, it’s ready to play.

Compared to its predecessor, the Wii U, this thing is a dreamboat.
The Wii U was an awful system. I’ve had it for a couple years. The games on it are great, but the system is so bad that you’re not likely to spend much time playing it anyway.
The Wii U also had a tablet-style interface, but it used Bluetooth and was tethered to a base station. The base station plugged into your television. It was heavy and clunky, and you couldn’t just pick it up and take it with you. You had to unplug it from your TV and the outlet, put everything in a bag, and carry it around like that.
The Wii U also used its tablet as a second screen, forcing you to play many of its games by looking at the television half the time, and at the tablet the other half of the time. The tablet was made of junky plastic, and was awkward to hold.
The Wii U looked like a portable system, but it wasn’t. The Wii U was a lie.
The Switch, on the other hand, is the real deal. The internals are nearly the same. The Switch isn’t more powerful than the Wii U. It’s practically the same system. (In fact, its most popular games — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 — are available on both platforms.)
The only major difference between the Wii U and the Switch is the design.
So why do I tell you all this?
I tell you all this because the design makes a difference.
This isn’t just a mental thing. The Switch is selling more units than the Wii U.
The Wii U was a failure. Over the course of several years, it sold only thirteen million units.
Since its release in March, the Switch has sold over five million. Nintendo can’t make them fast enough.
I tell you all this to explain that good design makes more money.
Why is this the case? I think it has a lot to do with intention and results.
Intentional design guides the user and sets their expectations appropriately.
The Wii U was intentionally designed to look like a portable console, but it isn’t. So nobody bought it. The very premise was a lie.
The Switch is intentionally designed to look like a portable console, and it is. The understated design is clear about what the device is. It’s an easy sell.
The same goes for your branding materials, and for your website, and for your marketing. If your branding is clear, and your design is honest, people will easily understand you. Successful design is clear and honest.
The faster people understand you, the faster they know if you align with their needs and their values.
And the faster they’ll give you their money.
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Originally published at wildfirestudios.ca on August 23, 2017.
