Why the best engineered products are also the best designed
This month, Tech Crunch Disrupt in New York will be focusing on Design during their Office Hours segment. Six companies will have a chance to spend time on-stage with some talented design experts. Startups will get to go up on stage, show the TC experts their designs, and receive advice and feedback.
Pretty cool considering the level of expert advice and insight these companies will get to turn their ideas into killer products. Design is critical to the R&D process, so much so that companies like Apple have been preaching design throughout it’s corporate culture, ensuring engaging design philosophies are engrained throughout everything they do, even marketing.
That’s because Steve Jobs was a design fanatic and lead by example. Steve Jobs was a firm believer that people love nice things, whether it be B2B or B2C.
Case in point…
Over the past few years, we’ve heard that it’s not only hard to find engineers. It’s hard to find great design talent. And if Apple’s still unbelievable and mind-boggling rise over the last 15 years shows anything, it’s that design matters. Design and simplicity made the difference between Instagram and every other photo-sharing app. It revived Path. It made Square stand out among all of the other credit card readers.
– Office Hours At TC Disrupt This Year Will Be All About Design
Yes, design does matter. Even B2B companies with great products are beginning to understand that great design is a competitive advantage. Take Cisco for example. They made routers look fantastic with their Human Network campaign. Routers! Go figure.
Even the former Apple engineers over at Nest learned a thing or two about design excellence from their boss when they developed a new “learning” thermostat. But Nest didn’t just make an innovative thermostat that is going head-head with Honeywell, they also incorporated a high-end design approach in ALL of their brand touchpoints and marketing tactics.
For the same reasons that you don’t see crappy Apple advertising or crappy Dyson marketing, you see Nest adhering to high design standards for every customer touchpoint. Their website, for example, is a fantastic experience. Watch the Nest video when you get a chance. It’s illustrates exactly what I’m talking about.
My point is this: If you’re engineering innovative products, then take a page out of Nest’s playbook (or, Path, Instagram, Square) and step up all your design initiatives so that a competitive design standard can be maintained throughout your corporate culture.
How does your company approach the design process? Let us know your thoughts.
