Warning Signs
- Your product or service is 10 times better than the competition, but no one's buying.
- You've gotten fantastic feedback on the utility the product, but no one has mentioned anything about the look
- None of your friends are talking about the product when you're not around
It doesn't matter if you've got the most efficient solution on Earth. If you don't spend the time and resources to create an attractive package or front end, no one is going to grok your service. When we adopt a new tool or utility, it costs us up front time to learn about it. As a tech fan, I love the learning phase and can quickly get past any lack of prettiness in the front end interface or design. But the bulk of shoppers, and users want something sleek and capable of producing envy from their friends. Don't ask me why, I'm not a psychologist, and for the most part I just make up statements based on my observations with no factual evidence. It's good to blog without the heavy anchor of proof!
Can't Make Your Service Pretty?
Never fear, there's a great alternative to pretty, explosive growth. Many purchase decisions are based on conforming. So if you're product grows fast enough, it doesn't matter how ugly it is (facebook UI, blech), most folks will end up using it. But if you want them to continue using it, you're going to have to make it look good. If users (or other businesses) can customize the look, feel or interface of your product or service, they can tailor it to their own needs.
Most of us have our own distinct style tastes, so when I say pretty, what I really mean is distinguished. Your product or service needs to stand out from competitors by not only having greater functionality, but by looking different.
- every user interface looks and responds just like Microsoft Office products, setup your UI like a carnival of balloons with lightning bolts attaching information segments or flow
- if every box of cereal is the same size, make yours look like the 2001 monolith
- every other product is round, make your's square but add laser beam bars
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