Design is Everything

The first portable media player to be released commercially was developed in 1996 by AT&T. It was called the FlashPAC, and it played a proprietary media format called Perceptual Audio Coding. Just one year later, the first MP3 player hit the market from a company called SaeHan, vastly expanding the digital listening options of the consumer (as MP3 is an open format). In the years the followed, many dozens of media players flooded the market and everyone waited for the digital music era to arrive. Some of these players were big and expensive, while others were simple and cheap; whatever the consumer needed the consumer would have, it would seem, with one notable exception: great design and usability. As a child of that era, I vividly remember the awful execution of even the best devices; they were menu-filled, confusing, and ugly. The only metric that was ever advanced was capacity, and the digital era never blossomed as expected.

Then came, nearly four years later: the iPod.

In 2001, Apple Computer was a shell of it's current (and former) self. In October, the month of the iPod release, AAPL was trading at near $15 per share and had barely avoiding bankruptcy just a few years prior. Steve Jobs had only just returned to the beliegered company four years earlier, and very few people thought much of the once great tech titan. The iPod, on release, was not even the most powerful MP3 player on the market; it did not have the most storage space, was by no means the smallest option, and it was available for use only on the Macintosh. Initially, as you might expect, sales were slow; but they quickly started to build steam as the consumer realized that there was one thing it had that none of the competition had: brilliant design and a seamless experience.

Apple did not invent the MP3 player; in fact, it did not even perfect the concept. What it did was perfect the usability of one such device. The iPod had none of the horrendous menu-driven systems of it's competitors, was easy to hold and handle, and offered a breathlessly simple tool for adding music to the device (called iTunes). When the device came to Windows in 2002, sales began to skyrocket. By July of 2005, analysts estimated that the iPod held a remarkable 74% of the total market share of all portable music playing devices, and had created nearly $3 billion in total sales. What once was a fractured market filled with potential and disappointment is now just about the sole property of Apple.

How did they do it?

One word: Design.

Design is everything. Software engineers loath to admit it, but design and usability is absolutely critical to the success of any consumer product. It doesn't matter how advanced or powerful a product is if the consumer doesn't like it or want to use it; and consumers have proven time and time again that they like, above all else, a well-designed, easy to use product. The consumer doesn't care about Megahertz or RAM or storage space; they don't care about pixels or palettes or power. The consumer cares only about the abstract and the obvious; "it can fit 1,000 songs" proved infinitely more powerful than "5 Gigabytes of space." And, even more important, the consumer has proven time and time again that they are willing to pay top-dollar for what they really like.

The iPod has never been the most powerful MP3 player on the market, even today. You can today buy a different device with more storage space, more power, and more battery life than any available iPod for half the price; and yet, so few choose to do so. We are willing and happy to spend twice the money on a less powerful and less capable device because by doing so we will know, confidently, that the iPod will deliver an unfrustrating, clean, and seamless experience that will deliver exactly what we need and nothing more. After so many years of brilliant design, Apple has now gained the unquestioning trust and loyalty of the public and a market share that is nearly $1 trillion!

And so, as you set out to change the world with your brilliant idea, make sure you remember to put the consumer first. Don't save design for last, or even the middle; give it the attention it deserves and put it front-and-center. You will be happy that you did when the consumer is raving about your wonderful work.

Originally published at Healey Engineering.