d e s i g n
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works."
– Steve Jobs
D e s i g n
Creative Design, Front End Design, UX, UI Design, Software Design, Design Thinking. The word design is being kicked around in the startup world a lot more these days, and I think this is a good thing.
Design is the exercise of creating or adding elements to something in order to make it function and/or look better. The best designs do both. Think iPhone, Ferrari, OS X. Design is defined as, "The shape or appearance given to an object, especially one that is intended to make it more attractive."
Great business strategies alone aren’t enough anymore, nor even great products. The threshold has moved up for acceptable design because so many people have become very good at it. The “I can’t draw” excuse is fading away as people see design as a digital process – cut and paste, or just copy the best. It’s creating some homogenization and sameness across much of the web and mobile apps, but that’s okay. In fact, if you’re trying to hack the core, don’t try weird design as your method – confusing people will only decrease your popularity.
Apple took the lead yet again in 2007 in the digital design aesthetic. The first iPhones were slick, the design was clean and different, even thought it pulled many elements from the past and from the mac. As the pioneers of touch, full-screen phones, iPhones set the standard. They promoted skeuomorphic design, which incorporates elements, textures and sounds from the real world into software designs, such as wood grain, a calendar binding, or the sound of a camera shutter clicking. This was a bit retro and left them vulnerable.
Then came along flat design and everything changed again. Flat design, popularized strangely by Microsoft with the Zune in 2006, finally caught on around 2011. It was a welcome change from the simulated leather and reflections and shadows.
The minimal, unadorned, solid color based style that draws from early modernism and European style, sent an instant ripple throughout the design world. It actually caught Apple by surprise. For the first time they became design followers by implementing flat design in iOS 7 in 2013.
Drawing, Art, Painting, Photography, they're all part of the design process.
There are many examples of great design in failing startups, but it takes great design plus great engineering and business strategies to win. Also, many startups with bad/weak design but great strategies and engineering have been winners. However, that seems to have changes. Almost everything has amazing design now. Finally were in a matured state of aesthetics in our digital world; next will be thousands of tiny enhancements. Ugly or dated design has become a no-go. Facebook beware.
To say that someone is a visual person is a little silly – everyone is visual. Colors and shapes and beautiful movement attract any human, often on a subconscious level. A simple and attractive design for a website or product can change its fate from yet another website to the best in its category.
Beautiful design exudes success and confidence, making it imperative to pay attention to the details. Even more important is originality. Truly great design comes from within a person or organization, not copied from outside and implemented. This was Steve Jobs contribution to the world before he died, in his final iterations of mobile interfaces.
Great design is more difficult, but imperative for long term success. Simple, beautiful design is proliferating on the web – lots of white space, a small number of large font words, big open boxes for interactivity, cool icons. All of these things enhance the user experience and make them want more.
"Less is more."
- - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
#startups #design #HackingTheCore