What Does Design Mean To You?
“I am a designer,” this is something I have been telling everyone that ever stopped to ask me what I do. But what does design really mean? The first thing you probably thought of is creating banners, flyers, logos and all those branded items we see every day, and you would be right.
But there is more to it than that.
Design can mean whatever you want it to mean to you.
Design is about communicating feelings through visual sensations and unique experiences. As human beings, we buy our favorite products in part because of how they make us feel. People don’t just want products that work, they want to feel happy while using them.
Apple has successfully capitalized on this simple fact and made billions of dollars (recently became the first trillion-dollar company in the world) with the idea of selling “class.”
Overtime, Apple has become synonymous with premium product design, quality and experience which is partly due to the minimalist design approach that has been adopted throughout the company’s brand assets and product packaging and it has had a great effect on how consumers perceive the company.
According to research, consumers tend to gravitate toward brands that embrace minimalism in their packaging designs; this is because their products stand out from the crowd, and gives the feeling of luxury, quality and this subsequently influences the consumer to make a faster purchase decision.
Google also has replicated this same feat with a completely different open-ended and much more playful approach, giving their customers the feeling of being “fun.” In 2014, Google developed a design language called Material Design which was intended to behave in a way similar to real life materials (especially paper). According to Google’s Android head Matias Duarte, “Our material is grounded in tactile reality, inspired by our study of paper and ink, yet open to imagination and magic”. Material Design uses bright colours, card based interfaces with playful transitions and subtle shadows, all of which contribute to giving users a responsive, immersive and stimulating experience in Google’s interfaces (a style now widely adopted by Android app developers and designers).
These brands have been able to achieve success, because they understand how to communicate feelings through experiences and have adopted various aspects of it to complement their brands.
As a designer, making things look pretty and appealing isn’t enough. Knowing how to take these creations from being appealing to becoming meaningful to the end user is also an aspect that should never be neglected; and that can only be done by crafting great experiences.
-By Bolatito Akanbi
