3 Seconds is all You Got for Your Designs to Sell!

Source: You-Did

Tic. Tock.
Tic. Tock.
Tic. Tock.
Three seconds.
That’s all you’ve really got to make the sale.
Source: The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less (Amazon Link)

In a blink of an eye, a potential buyer would have entered a store, quickly scan the different products on the shelf and then make a decision to engage with a particular product.
All this happens in just 3-5 seconds!
A product’s external housing is one of the first things a customer sees. This means for your designs to be successful, it will only have 3 seconds to capture the buying interests of your target customer. In today’s ultra competitive market landscape represented by information overload, saturated product offerings and competent competitors who can also do good design, ensuring that your design does this job well is no easy task.
So then how do you do it? Here is how I think it can be done.
1) Create a Unique Design Identity
Similar to a Brand, a unique design language or design identity is one of the strongest elements you can use to form attachments between your product and target consumer.
Key design details, such as strong silhouettes, unique button layouts and even materials or finishing can be “identity handles” that give your consumers anchor points to connect with your design.
BMW’s “flame surfaces”, the iPod click wheel and Coke bottle, are great examples of unique iconic designs that communicates what the product stands for without even the need for the brand’s logo to be present.
2) Strategic Designs that Communicate
Coming up with a great design identity is useless if the design language has no meaning behind it. It is not called a “language” for nothing.
A design language, in the true sense of the word, needs to be in a form that communicates what your product is all about.
You should aim for your design to communicate the product’s benefits to your target consumer. You should take this opportunity to visualize unique competitive or differentiation elements of your product may have. Best of all, you could take this idea to the next level by sculpting your language in such a way that it tells a compelling story.
3) Only Winning Designs may Apply
If all your great ideas for unique design languages don’t look good when they come together, you are probably not going in the right direction.
You need to continue to push your design work to ensure that it is the best work you can do, and what you come up with is truly a “winning design”.
The competitive marketplace is merciless and ruthless. There is really no space for design that falls into second or third place.
4) Not Just a Wow Factor, but a Meaningful Wow Factor
Coming up with a unique iconic language is only half of the story. It is important that it is meaningful to your target consumer as well.
Do your homework and to make sure that your design is a clear reflection of your market research and target market analysis. Make sure your target market’s needs and wants are accounted for in your design.
5) Consistency is the Key to Prosperity
Finally, to wrap it all up into that winning recipe, you need to add an ingredient of consistency.
Identifying the key design details or “identity handles” are important first steps, but the discipline to ensure that these handles are consistently executed over and over again is what will make it stick in the long run.
Repeated and consistent exposure of your design language to your target consumer, will allow them to slowly build a visual relationship with your product that will create a lot of design goodwill that can be leverage over and over again.
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I hope you enjoyed this post? I look forward to all your feedback and comments, or perhaps a different methodology you have found successful.