The Simple Guide
Design Basics for Startups, Brands and Businesses.
A guide to how industrial design principles affect how products are seen, perceived and used by consumers.
What is Design?
Design is seen as very loaded word and means different things to different people but the common thread is that it is the meaningful and deliberate exercise of solving a problem be it physical or visual.
Design as a field is as wide as it is deep with many diverse fields and sub fields all with the goals of solving problems we encounter and enriching the lives we live. The major fields most relevant to brands, businesses and organizations are to mention a few, graphic design,interaction design, industrial design, brand strategy and engineering.
All these fields have a common ground in their systematic approach to solving problems and validating solutions for different use cases depending on the factors. Design requires inquisitiveness, critical thinking and creativity. It challenges us to examine our reality,our environment and our assumptions. Upon questioning these constraints , we can come up with solutions that are rooted in reality while still being aspirational, different and suitable.
Design is also a very collaborative venture. Startups, brands and businesses should expect to draw technical know-how and influence from its diverse fields that comprise design to make a holistic product capable of solving a problem. As an example, at ACM we use the diverse disciplines of engineering and industrial design to develop products for our clients.
Why is it important?
In recent times the importance of design has grown to become a pivotal factor in the making of any startup or brand. Household brands such Apple have demonstrated this adequately. Design is emerging to be a key differentiator in the market place helping businesses create a competitive advantage and cultivate loyalty translating to wider adoption and consequently higher revenues.
But it is clear that management on these startups,brand and businesses appreciate the need for deliberate design but this agreement is more often in principle than in practice. The current culture of ‘technology first’ has convinced many to overlook a people centered design process. In its stead, a ‘build it and they will come’ mindset has been embraced as it is apparently less rigorous compared to a detailed design driven approach.
To this effect, the consumer market has become more discerning and most if not all will not put up with a badly designed product or experience and even more sobering is that they will as Jeff Bezos put it: tell 6000 friends.
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world,they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Basic Guidelines for Design
We believe that design ought to have three key concepts behind it:
- Logic — This refers technical principles that a solution functions on and their ability, reliability and effectiveness. It rests on the logic and rationality behind the design.
- Ethics — This has to do with the ethical consideration of a given design including emerging issues such as sustainability,fair trade and safety. It emphasizes credibility,authority and reliability.
- Emotion — This addresses the ability of a product to go beyond form and function to develop an emotional connection with users. This takes aim at emotions , imaginations and sympathy to create a connection.
These three concepts are taken from Aristotle’s Rhetoric which discusses persuasion and is used in marketing and advertising extensively. These three tenets have come to be known as the ‘Modes of Persuasion’.
Ten Principles of Good Design
In the 1970s, a German industrial designer by the name of Dieter Rams came along and expounded on the aforementioned concepts to come up with his famous ten principles for good design.
According to arguably the most influential designer to date, good design is:
Innovative
A good design takes advantage of existing advances in every facets of design thinking and technology. It pursues progress and improvement to deliver more value and reflect the needs of the market be it sustainability, fair trade and even safety.
Case in Point: FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System from Abbott.
According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), “The Freestyle Libre 14 Day Flash Glucose Monitoring System (Freestyle Libre) is a glucose monitoring system that can be used by adult patients to make diabetes treatment decisions without obtaining a blood sample from the fingertip (finger stick). The system consists of an externally-worn glucose sensor that continuously measures glucose levels and displays values to the user in response to a user-initiated action (scan).” As such the product uses modern advancements in sensors to remove the need for finger prick tests making it convenient and painless to use.
Make a product useful
Any and all products are bought and acquired to be used and expected to achieve and excel at their designated purpose. Even the most beautiful,eye catching design is moot as a solution to a consumer’s need(s). Arguably this is the golden commandment for designers and anyone who is creating a solution to a problem.
Case in point: Google Glass
Despite having the cool factor, what problem was it solving for the average consumer to demand a USD 1500 price tag?
Aesthetic
A functional product is a rational need for a discerning consumer but good design goes beyond this to seek an emotional connection with them. However aesthetics has little to do with sophistication and more to do with simple but perfect execution of the design process.
Case in Point: Edge of Belgravia Knife
A simple yet elegant reinterpretation of the knife bring about a product that excels both in form and function. You can literally feel the comfort it offered.
Makes a product understandable
Intuitiveness is a key design attribute for a good design. If well executed, a product simply expressed its function through its form and vice versa and this self explanatory nature is a key differentiator for any business, startup and organization. If you have to explain the product extensively, there’s something amiss.
Case in Point: Wait for it.
What is told you this was a salt and pepper shaker? Yes the design is … unique but if you were sent into a room to get a salt and pepper shaker, would you find it?
Unobtrusive
Simply put, a product is a tool designed to fulfill a function and as such they need not be decorative or artistic. “But aesthetics!!!” you say. Fair point, but aesthetics should be viewed mutual merging of function and form with function taking precedence in striving for neutral façade leaving staying out of the user’s way but achieving it’s function when and it engaged.
Case in Point: 3D TVs
Lots of cool factor but the user experience was too complex and draining from sourcing 3D content to cheap clunky 3D glasses. Moreover eye strain and dizziness was reported by over 20% of users. As a result, many prospective buyers could not justify this trade off for simple daily viewing thus sales fell.
Honest
Society is built promises,agreements contracts and creeds. It therefore follows that a good design ought to be honest in the benefits it promises to confer to its users. Simply put, no fluff,no gimmicks, no manipulative jargon. Just communicate who and what you are.
Case in Point: The Edison by Theranos
The Edison was explained to be a miniature blood lab suitable for domestic use that could do extensive blood tests with minimal amount of blood samples…a finger prick they said. Long story short it was a lie and the company was wound up with the founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes facing charges in court. There’s a neat HBO documentary explaining how things went sour. Lesson: Be Honest.
Long-lasting
Being fashionable is a huge incentive for designers, businesses and startups today and while this is understandable, it is founded on a wrong assumption :that unfashionable means antiquated. Instead, aim to design and create products that do not seek to be ‘fashionable’ in the traditional sense and thus transcend time, tastes and trends to be icons and landmarks in the market, forever relevant.
Case in Point: Braun Products
By the way, the Braun designs are from the 1960s, need I say more?
Thorough
What is more disappointing than a 90% complete/perfect design. Like those that are so perfect on their looks but break up on their first use. Or similarly lack a basic feature critical to its function. All this speaks to a design process that cut corners on some trivial aspects that derail the entire design and dooms the product to be subpar from the onset. As Dieter says,”Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process shows respect towards the consumer.”
Case in Point: Can’t trace the product’s name or company.
A simple height adjustable stand would complete this.
Environmentally friendly
At this point in time, every one can appreciate that ecological preservation is a real need. Good design aims to respect the environment and engage it in a mutually beneficial manner or at the very least iteratively reduce its impact through out the product’s life cycle.
Case in Point: Look around you.
Most of the products we use are built to be used and discarded with no regard for proper disposal and/or recycling. As such, it behooves us to build into products that enable, encourage and enhance minimal environmental impact and maximal recycling and up cycling.
Includes as little design as possible
A good design focuses on the key essentials critical to its function and performance. It does not burden itself with anything else. As Dieter says, “Back to purity, back to simplicity.”
Case in point: Coolest Cooler
Coolest cooler was in essence a traditional cooler with the additional perks of having a blender and Bluetooth speaker built in. Its cost of development was so high due to its complex design and ‘put everything in there’ design thinking. Thus the company ran out of runway and was wound up leaving many disappointed Kickstarter backers.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, design is a structured way to move from the known to the unknown…and this is where most startups and businesses start to veer off course. Be it ego or just old habits, startups and businesses alike seem to always believe that they are market experts without engaging with the market. From this misstep, they go on to assume that people will flock to buy their products which they built in a vacuum and born out of their own egos.
“People don’t care about your solution, they care about their problems.”
Dave McClure, Entrepreneur & Angel Investor.
Good products are founded on two things above all else, the product and user. Focus on exhaustively researching these two and you will have set a good foundation for your product.
What’s your take?
