How much weightage you give to design in product success?

Sushil Sharma
8 replies
In the real world, it happens many times designs are overlooked when we need to ship product fast. What is your thought about the role of design in the success of a product?

Replies

Peter Jacobs
I tend to think design (first impression) is equally important as a product's concept or workings. Simple products get away without well-thought design better than complex ones, though.
Sushil Sharma
@peter_jacobs3 Totally agree with you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yassin Bouacherine
For me, I would say, it's 30% design and 70% functionalities. I would rather use an ugly product that has strong foundations in terms of structural design. If we look at Microsoft 98, XP to Windows 7, the structure stays almost the same, it just looks better over time. Same as clothing, it's just the surface.
Sushil Sharma
@jack95 I totally agree with you to ship products fast and get the users feedback early to refine it further. Any product development is endless process. The products who stop upgrading or refining beome obsolete. We have several examples. Skype was one of them. They were the no. one chat app many years back but they lack in upgrading and understanding the requirement of users and now no body use it. Get better design and ship fast should be the target of any product team. It's awesome to see your response and insights.
Sushil Sharma
@jack95 With every upgrade on Windows, they not only looks better, they became easy to use as well and that is what design does. It simplify complex functionalities. Linux is also robust in functionality but we know why most of the people don't use it. It lacks in designs. What do you think?
Yassin Bouacherine
@sushil_sharma2 You are completely correct! It did became much easier now. Now that I remember, It reminds me the time we had to install every possible drivers possible to make things work ;D. On the other side, yes, the design has made it more reliable and easy to navigate. But it took time for a giant to come to this level of simplicity. I think it's safe to say that we should take inspiration from others, and integrate those designs at our level. That would certainly be enough. At the end, there will be always something to improve. The question is how long can you hold it back until you finally have to launch your product to the public. People can also play the role of an accelerator in pinpointing bad design, that has to be considered as well. As long as there isn't some critical issues, it should be safe to launch. Btw, great response!
Marilyn Barnes
Given the significant role design plays in user experience and functionality, I'd say it's a critical component, possibly carrying 50-60% weightage, in a product's success as it can immensely influence usability, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, market acceptance!