Thought:
Bad design is painful. Good design is noticed. Great designed is ignored.
Why? How?
PSA: many designers have said this before me.
“Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.” — Joe Sparano
“Good design, when done well, should be invisible” — Jared Spool
You get the idea.
However, many startups put design on the back burner. We’ll do it when we have revenue, they say.
In my opinion, this is a mistake.
Of course, I’m not arguing for multi-million design agency contracts. But if I have learned one thing on my entrepreneurship journey, it is that good design increases legitimacy and attracts users.
So when you build an MVP, make sure you think of product design.
For instance:
- What is the value of the product? Does design help convey that value?
- What are the features or details that I can ELIMINATE?
- How crowded is the interface? Can I streamline it?
- How easy is the product to use?
- Does design reinforce the message I want to share with the user?
Even at the MVP stage, you can avoid bad design pitfalls that might result in customers turning away.
Typical mistakes include feature overload, crowded interface (and they usually go hand-in-hand), and unnecessary steps.
So start simple. You won’t get it right the first time, but if you think of design from the get-go, you’re likely to build a fantastic product in the long run.
Cheers,
Léa
