How do you define a successful product?
Most people would say that the marketing campaign was good which attracted huge number of people towards the product. Some would suggest that the technical specification and hardware is the one thing which attracted people and others might have different opinion about it. A very few people will point out the main thing behind a successful product i.e. Design.
Just to bring the fact into light that design is one of the most important factors for a product’s success, we will be using an example. Let’s say you are to buy a chair, how would you proceed? Let us make it simple for you, you enter the furniture mart and the first thing you see is for a chair which looks nice, you select it and then check the material used and the comfort level it provides when you sit on it. The same thing happens when you are to purchase clothes, you move to the try room when you are satisfied with the design.
You will probably be imagining where we are going with this discussion; the point is that web designers can learn a few things from the product designs. We will be giving you examples of some of the successful products which all of us might have used or have the desire to use them.
In our opinion, web designers are very creative human beings, as we interact with them on daily basis. We know that they take inspiration from anything and from anywhere. We do not exactly see what they can see; a beautiful quote comes in my mind at this time “Beauty is in the eyes of beholder”. Web designers have good instincts; they judge the attractiveness of a product in a few seconds. Truly speaking, designing is not all about balancing the colors (although it is one basic thing for a designer that they need to have command on), a fantastic designer requires more than pure technique. It requires that they see the context and make decisions accordingly. There are three things we need to consider in web design Ability of Designer, Following the Scope, and Iterations.
Now let’s talk about the products with reference to each of the three things we mentioned above to clarify things for you:
Zippo (Ability of Designer):
The king of lighters in my opinion. Since the introduction the same design has been used except for the minor color adjustments to provide the users more range of the product. It looks friendly and solid at the same time, a product which requires your attention to work. So, what are the things which make it stand out in lighters? It has its own scent, the sound of ‘clink’ which it makes when flipped open, the fact that it is windproof, and when taken good care of Zippo’s usually lights in the first attempt.
Combine all the things and you get a high class and quality product – just as the web designs should be. This sounds very hard and yet so simple to perform at our end.
Toyota Corolla Vs Mini Cooper (Focusing on the Scope):
First we decide the main difference in both the cars. Corolla, a reliable family car. Mini Cooper, beautiful small car attracting young people. Both are successful so what is the point of this discussion, you must be wondering right now. Don’t worry, we will describe our point: Cars do more than transport people. If Toyota Corolla was to be made as fancy as Mini Cooper, then it might become expensive. Similarly if Mini Cooper is to be imagined as a family car, it might lose the charm and might not attract the young people, as it does with the current design. We hope you are with us till now and understand the point discussed.
Moving forward, we all know there is a scope behind every product. As long as the scope is being met, the product would remain alive in the market. The same thing happens in the web designing. You must define the objectives for your project first. You know all the rules; just make sure you follow them. Designs are never completed, new features come up and older ones are replaced, it never stays still.
One thing to remember here is not to lose the focus. Don’t engulf to put in all the things in the web design, this act can be risky and there is a chance that you will lose your focus and the design prepared fails.
Apple (Iterations):
Apple known to us all, so no need to introduce and provide information about it. Just one statement and you will know what we are talking about, “If Apple iterates, why we shouldn’t?” – You got the point… If a giant like Apple makes iterations then we also shouldn’t be embarrassed to iterate our designs.
Why? Because the ideas and the implementations are very rarely free of flaws. We know that it is very hard to accept that your idea needs improvement it requires a lot of courage to accept it. However, we know that all of the ideas have flaws and they need to be rectified at one point or the other, if not dealt the project might fail.
So take our suggestion, and if you feel it hard to accept that your idea has flaw in it, just remember the quote “There is always room for improvement”. This might make you feel that the idea was good and you are making it better by changing or adding a few things instead of feeling that your idea had flaws and you are removing or rectifying the flaws.
If you look around the world, there are a lot of products and each one has its own story to tell, a story of its design, scope, and iterations. Creating a web design which leaves an everlasting impression is not easy, and neither it is impossible. It just requires a bit of brain storming and a focus on the objective you are trying to achieve.
If you think you have followed our procedure defined above and have created a web design with everlasting impression, we would like you to share your success story with us.
