Sharing my thoughtson Design through articles
The necessity of design
‘AS A DESIGNER WE DO NOT SELL DESIGN, WE SELL THE SOLUTION THAT DESIGN SOLVES.’
‘As a designer we do not sell design,
we sell the solution that design solves.’
MIRIAM ISAC – UX DESIGN CONSULTANT
Quoting Miriam Isaac allows me to highlight the essence of design. For example, when it comes to branding, it’s all about looking further and digging deeper than “just a logo” as the client often says.
Branding is the key solution that design offers : that’s what a company needs to develop its image. This is what makes a company look reliable, directly affecting sales.
Understanding the previous sentence is the first step to go further. It doesn’t matter how much you know your product or how much it is better than your competitor’s, you have to make sure every potential consumer sees it that way. It’s the challenge : that’s when your communication starts.
Since everyone has an opinion… and judges, you have to consider your brand as a true entity and ask yourself
the right questions : What do people think about it ? How to make it attractive ? What instigates desire ?
With design, you get what you pay for. People could buy your designless product but if you want your business to thrive, you have to invest in your company’ appearance and in the way people see it.
With that approach, we can ensure you that the challenge we have take up consists in sparking emotions. Trust is one of them. Why trust ? Because its synonym of leads. No one will purchase something they don’t believe in. To trigger sales, you have to understand the psychology of your pool of clients.
‘A brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.’
MARTY NEUMEIER – THE BRAND GAP
People make their minds up in less than 3 seconds (approx.) so you have to be memorable on the first sight and continue to improve the sparks by offering unforgettable experiences.
That’s the reason why companies have departments with brand conceptors, brand strategists and brand research. The importance of design shouldn’t be underestimated. Design allows your brand to exude trustworthiness. If a communication/design agency is provides mediocre work, why should the consumer invest in it ?
So, what makes your brand memorable ? You just received your new logo, that’s good news but that’s not enough. As I already said, you have to see your brand as a entity itself. Both goods and services have to be amazing. You should have a strategy which reinforces your narrative, it’s utterly important. It’s always a good idea to be the carrier of strong values ! Every aspect of your activity has to be thought of : the tone, the storytelling and the consumer experience have to be sorted out.
The importance of storytelling
« A busy day, a commute stuck in the traffic, over-excited kids. Well… a never-ending stressfull day. You need a
moment to yourself to relax. »
By putting our product descriptions in context, we create a story to which the consumers relate to.
Even though you can’t control what people think of you, it’s all about mixed feelings and emotions. But the thing is, you can influence them. Nowadays, we want to experience things rather than solely buying a product. “I’m ready to pay 25% more if it’s from fair trade, if it’s organique or GMO-free.”
We base our choices on symbolic attributes : “What does the product look like ? Where is it sold ? What group will I be in if I buy it ? What do people say about it ? If I can trust the manufacturer, I can buy it now and think about it later?” (Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier)
Disney showed us how to build a brand, showed us that you need creativity and a strong strategy. Since 1934, they truly mastered the art of storytelling. Walt Disney once said :
“If I can’t find a theme, I can’t make a movie people will enjoy. I can’t make intellectual humor. I’m only nerdy enough to enjoy a story that hit in my heart.”
What we can learn from that is that a story needs to be themed. What make your brand unique and allows you to build a long-term competitive advantage ? You have to be genuine to touch someone else. You have to use your own emotions.
EXEMPLE OF DARWIN AGENCY’S LINKEDIN POSTS
Their are looking for apprentie but do it in a very creative way by contextualizing with strong culture popular pictures. By doing it they show the creativity of the agency and create desire to work for them. Well done guys !
Most brands don’t master the art of storytelling but the ones who do are inspirational : Coca Cola, Apple, Nike, Disney to name a few. They became modern icons because they represent values people want to be defined by.
The art of storytelling is the power to use a narrative that links your brand to your pool of consumers, byemphasizing the values you represent and that you both share.
When it’s mastered, it’s really game-changing and it can differenciate you from your competitors.
The power of aesthetics
« Never forget that you only have one opportunity to make a first impression – to investors, customers, PR, and marketing. »
Dame Natalie Massenet, Chairwoman of the British Fashion Council
The first impression is a game-changer for your company. Studies show that people make decisions in accordance with visual comparison.
Another one shows that some design-driven companies like the ones mentioned above, got better results by 219% between 2004 and 2014.
The results are here to prove it. Design is a powerful tool your company should benefit from. Brand owners that do tend to get better results regarding sales. Aesthetics are so powerful that they can turn a basic product into a luxurious one, or the opposite.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that charismatic brands are leaders in their field, owning more than 50% of market shares. They also tend to put higher prices tags on their products – up to 40% more than “generic” brands.
Design comprises every channel of communication : websites, packagings, advertising, social media, etc. All of them belong to your brand, to your story, because they work hand in hand to ensure the consumers find your message relevant.
A good design has the power to translate something complex in something accessible, funny or remarkable ! Design makes clients faithful because consumers tend to become lovers of the brand.
Your brand is now unforgettable.
The cost of (no) design
IF WE THINK THAT GOOD DESIGN IS EXPENSIVE, WE SHOULD LOOK AT THE COST OF BAD DESIGN. – DR RALF SPETH CEO JAGUAR LAND ROVER
Printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum
printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum
Why invest in a (good) website
Come on, we are in 2021. There are amazing web experiences out there and you’re still wondering if you should get a website ?
Come on, we are in 2021. There are amazing
web experiences out there and you’re still
wondering if you should get a website ?
Welcome in 2021, where every brand has a website, and some of them have a pretty good one. Let’s take a look at : https://www.typology.com/ or https://www.craig-reynolds.com/ (The second one is not really a brand but the website sells the creator’s skills).
In a world with around 400 million of active websites, you need to leverage creativity and aesthetic to differentiate your business from the mass.
Why ?! Because it’s a war, you need to have a better product than your competitors to be in front/ahead. Wait, maybe not ! But at least you need to sell it better than them 😉
Humans react to visual impression, most of us process based on what we see things. This is the power of images. According to the Social Science Research Network, 65% of people are visual learners. That means our content needs to be clear and communicate quickly (who we are, what we sell/offer). We must trigger desire from potential consumers for them to engage with our brand.
There is no secret. If you’re looking to create a website, you need to build a platform that will connect your business to your audience. Starting from a creative idea, to end up with a solid final product. The goal is to have a direct impact on your future consumers in order to convert them into active fans of your brand / into product lovers.
« There is not a single business that I can think of that transitioned from the analog world to the digital world, where the digital iteration is smaller than the analog version. » A. Pompliano
Your website is as important as your store
(if not more)
Talent-r is a human-centered recruitment agency based in Barcelona I helped THEM to build their DIGITAL platform. We never discussed about having a store, it’s all happening on internet today.
Let’s think about the fact that people work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day (minimum !). This means that they can’t come to your store-front during this time. They don’t have time to exchange directly with you and during the week end they want to spend time with their family, their friends, partner, et cetera.
But they’ll clearly be able to check your website during their free time. We all have 24-hours days and every minute I can save, I’m happy with. A website is a gain of time, you are saving your time through your website, and you’re saving the time of the people who are visiting it.
Quoting Kasper Rorsted, CEO of Adidas “Our single most important store in the world is our dot-com store, there is no comparison”.
ADIDAS made a pivotal strategic
decision to partner with Reaktor to rebuild their digital presence.
Adidas’ digital store is their fastest-growing sales channel, generating double-digit growth rates year over year. Early 2017, Adidas set an ambitious goal to quadruple their online sales from €1 billion to €4 billion by 2020.
Lots of e-commerce were saved by the nature of their business during the Covid-19 crisis. Not only they were saved but they increased their turn-over by 3 or more in some instances. A website allows you to be in contact with people from almost everywhere. This is a considerable competitive advantage that you must have for your business.
To conclude, your website is more important than your store. You could offer an unlimited number of products because you aren’t constrained by retail space. The capital becomes easier to obtain because the potential upside of the business is greater thanks to a more profitable model.
More occasions will trigger more sales
There are more than 2 billions
digital buyers worldwide.
A little reminder of the French digital market :
89 % of the French population is an internet user and 85,5% of them buy on the Internet. They make an average of 33 online purchases per year.
The average daily time spent using the internet on any device by each of those users is around 5 hours !
Still not convinced ?
That’s a number ! People like to shop online. Some of the reasons are: the gain of time, the free return policy and maybe the main one, prices are usually cheaper.
The maths are simple: the more people you can reach, the higher the chances of developing your business. A website allows you to reach an incredible number of people without doing anything if your work is done correctly upfront.
By investing in your website, you’re building your future. Why?
EASYGYM homepage we created
with a simple claim:
« Sport makes life better, Easygym makes sport easier »
Every part of our website was built to be disruptive VS what our competitors do. https://www.easygym.fr/
Not too long ago, customers had no choice but to visit physical stores. Every transaction or interaction was happening in a physical location. We are witnessing a new business model where the digital increases drastically the potential.
Today we can buy food directly from our phone, watch a movie on Netflix from our couch, rent a car thanks to Google, plan our holidays from the confort of our homes. All you need is a phone or a computer. Everything happens online. Welcome to the future present. It’s time for you to get a website, I mean a good one.
Facebook is continuously
investing in its website, looking to improve every functionality to enhance
its usability.
By investing in your website you’re building the base for your future. That is why you need to develop it carefully, to create something that will deliver the best user-experience possible. You will enhance customer loyalty. That means your web presence has to clearly and quickly communicate who you are, in order to motivate potential buyers to engage with your brand.
Your audience will notice a great website and that’s something people love. It’s something that triggers emotions, it’s the difference that makes you memorable. Remember the last time you entered a nice shop, the feeling you had. It will be the same here. It’s all about the experience you offer. The better the experience, the more you have chance to generate sales.
« Good working for the web is about creating communications in which people can find what they need, understand what they find, and act appropriately »
Ginny Redish
According to Tyton Media, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive, 94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website.
A GOOD WEBSITE WILL BE YOUR BEST EMPLOYEE
LBC : a diaper website
A website proposal we made for LittleBigChange, they already were our clients but not on the digital side. We redesigned all the website and proposed them a real human-centered approach that truly understandS parents’ needs.
I totally reworked the subscription page which was one of the most important one but wasn’t clear. By adding informations with the size ( 1 -2 -3-4-5-6 ) together with the weight who is supposed to fit with.
The interval between each delivery wasn’t clear so we decided to bring a new perspective by calculating the daily usage of each customers that will then trigger the next delivery accordingly.
At the end, even if the budget was not fully allocated to bring the new design just created, all the UX were implemented and applied.
One of the goals of your website is to represent your business instead of you. Even if you’re sitting enjoying a coffee while working on enhancing your business, your website will do the job we created it for. It’s a sales machine, as it will inform all the visiting customers on your products.
To do the same job in your store, you will want someone good, who knows how to present, someone who triggers sales. This is nothing different for your website, you need the best possible to transform every visit into a sale/deal.
It needs to be seen as a long term asset. It will require substantial work at the start and the investment can be consequent. However, once it’s launched, it will remain over time and won’t require much maintenance.
Like we said before, the first impression is extremely important. You don’t have many opportunities with a customer that comes: he either likes it or not. It’s easy for them to understand what you offer (or don’t). If « not », they will rarely come back to see if you made some changes.
It’s not only about the sales you lose, it’s about the ones you make. The new consumer will share their positive experiences with their friends about the last product they bought, and this will attract more people to your website and eventually trigger additional sales.
The competition is hard so you have to be good. It’s not only about your growth, but it’s first about the survival of your business. A business that can’t keep up with the competition is doomed to die.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple
Having extra costs is the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment.
Studies show that 28% of shoppers have failed to complete a purchase because they were asked to create an account.
Recent data found that making products easy to find through simple search and navigation was the most important attribute of the online shopping experience for 61% of shoppers.
Think about the companies that are really successful, what do they all have in common ? They didn’t need to create a new market. But they managed to become the first in the mind of people, by creating a unique visual language that people love because it’s are full of personality.
It’s not only about making things look better, it’s about making things work better. We are here to bring value. The aesthetic doesn’t have importance if a product is not functional or is missing key features.
You need the right balance between value and aesthetics. It’s very important to understand that sometimes aesthetics bring value as well.
The previous quote of Steve Jobs brings a very important point: design is not only how it feels, it’s about how it works, it’s about the user experience. How can I create better products for my audience, what can I do to make it easier for everyone, even someone who never tried before. Designers study for that, and have knowledge that brings them a clear value. It’s about bringing emotions, creating a best-in-class user experience that will help your brand communicate a clear message.