Design Doesn't Matter

http://blog.kadavy-inc.com/post/455871317/design-doesnt-matter

by kadavy • 16 years ago

9 12 16 years ago

gprisament2• 16 years ago

I think design and profit margins go hand-in-hand. If you have a low margin business selling something cheap in large volume then design doesn't matter so much. If you want to sell higher margin, boutique, premium goods then design matters more (hence the word "designer").

kadavy3• 16 years ago

Sounds pretty realistic, but I wonder what the profit margin is for Sriracha sauce. It seems like a pretty recognizable brand - and a recognizable brand usually = higher profit margin.

brandnewlow• 16 years ago

Going to take a shot in the dark and say hi, greg.

gprisament2• 16 years ago

holy cow! hey Brad... it's funny who you run into on hn!

lsc• 16 years ago

I would expand this further and say that the more margin you want, the more you need to spend on marketing in general. Marketing a product that is obviously similar to but cheaper than the competition is easier/cheaper than marketing a high margin product.

Note, I would be careful to not confuse margin and profit. Volume can often make up for a lower margin.

ziadbc2• 16 years ago

This reminds me of times I've heard non techie people say that one reason Google got popular because "it just had a weird name." There are tons of weird named websites, but once one gets popular then people think the name sounds nice, familiar and special. Ycombinator's orange and logo seem iconic now, but its the company not the design that does it.

samdk• 16 years ago

Provocative, general headline with an overly specific example. I know I'm not the only person who's tired of posts like this. There's a point to be made here--a good point. But it's completely ignored in favor of making a broad, meaningless, eye-catching statement.

Design doesn't matter some of the time. In this case, the aspect of the bottle design we're discussing--the label--is completely irrelevant to the functioning of the product. Its only real purpose is to sell the product. So when the product is ubiquitous enough that you instantly recognize it and want to buy it regardless, then the label design doesn't matter at all.

But when you're trying to get to the point of ubiquity--the point where everyone already knows your product and everyone seeks it out--then design usually does matter. Sometimes it gets trumped by other factors or someone gets lucky. But that doesn't mean design doesn't matter.

ziadbc2• 16 years ago

It does say at the end of the post "Sometimes" design doesn't matter. I don't think the point of the article was to say "Design Never Matters."

My takeaway was more that sometimes a fancy facade is no substitute for a great product.

kadavy3• 16 years ago

I'll admit to dramatic tactics, but one does what works.

I'm not clear on the point of your argument. It sounds as if you're saying:

* The purpose of the label - as is being discussed - is to sell the product.

* If a product is popular enough that you instantly recognize it, then the label design doesn't matter.

* Yet when you're trying to get to the point of ubiquity, design does matter.

patrickg• 16 years ago

This person mixed up design and style. This bottle is of course designed and I bet it is designed like this on purpose. But to the author's eyes, it doesn't have style. He (as I) lives in a different culture than the manufacturer, so this is probably a cultural clash.

kadavy3• 16 years ago

I'm not clear on how I'm confusing design and style. As I try to explain, the bottle is lacking in what are considered fundamentals of good typography and design. I would say the bottle definitely has "style." It has it's own attitude in the naivete of principles of good design.

jpcx01• 16 years ago

He's right that design sometimes doesnt matter. But most of the time it does, especially if you're trying to break in.

Design Doesn't Matter

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