Design… It’s like Building a House

A 5 Minute Video Explainer

What is Design

A product can be beautiful but if it doesn’t function well, it won’t be a good experience. Design goes beyond aesthetics and is a complex form of communication and problem solving. It is one of the most important things you can invest in while building a product to increase sales and revenue, foster brand and customer loyalty, and reduce development cost and time.

Did you know that first impressions are 94% design related¹ and 88% of online shoppers² say they wouldn’t return to a website after having a bad user experience? Google now ranks websites based on UX, so having a great experience means you have an edge over your competitors.

To understand some of what goes into the design process at Echobind and why investing in design is a smart business move, let’s consider how a house gets built. To build a beautiful and quality house, each of these aspects are critical, inform each other, and cannot be done in isolation. Design is the same and helps ensure you have a product customers love.

Laying the Ground Work

You wouldn’t buy the first plot of land you saw without doing your homework, getting a survey, exploring the neighborhood, understanding the zoning laws, and talking to friends and family, and the same goes for product development. Without doing discovery and research, you are making a big investment in product development based on assumption. Designers conduct market research, look at competitors, and interview you and your customers to validate all ideas, ensuring that the product you build is exactly what needs to be built to meet your business and customer needs.

Building the Structure

Next comes the structure. You wouldn’t start wiring the electric or picking out paint colors without ensuring the architecture is approved and the structures are sound. As designers, we rely on UX or user experience design to ensure that every step of your product is cohesive and has been intentionally laid out from the first moment someone lands on your product to when they leave. 83% of customers³ say a seamless experience across all devices is important, and we rely on responsive design techniques and industry design standards to ensure your product works just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop.

Designing the Interiors

Only after research has been done and the structure is in place do we focus on the UI or the user interface. Just like paint colors and the interior design of house can make someone feel confident and comfortable, interface design does the same. It is a strategic form of visual communication that leaves your customer with an elegant, cohesive, and delightful experience across all devices that reflects your brand and mission. We focus on the smallest of details across layout, typography, color usage, interactions, and design patterns to ensure that your product is just as beautiful as it is functional.

Approving and Maintenance

Once the house is built, it requires exhaustive approvals and tests to ensure that it is up to code and is ready for you to call home. In design, we use usability testing which catches up to 85% of errors before your product goes development or market. And once you are all moved in, a house requires regular maintenance and support to stay up to date. As trends evolve, customer needs shift, and your business changes, your product needs to be regularly maintained. Just as you would regularly test your air conditioner, designers use testing, audits, and other, and accessibility audits to ensure it is ADA compliant.

The Swiss Army Knife of Product Development

As UI and UX designers, we are not just painters, but researchers, strategists, architects, interior designers, handymen and so much more. Throughout the design process, we ensure that each and every step of your product is a modern and seamless experience across all devices, ensuring that every customer has a great experience.

Additionally, by investing in design at the start of your project, it can save a tremendous amount of time and money over the course of the product development. Fixing a problem⁴ in development costs up to 10 times more than fixing it in design, and up to 100 times more if the product is already in market.

At Echobind, we offer a full array of software design services and can help you discover the right solution, design a new product, improve and existing product, or even augment your internal team. Our process is iterative and flexible based on your needs, timeline, and budget, and our team is ready to help.

Footnotes

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221516871_Trust_and_mistrust_of_online_health_sites ↩

2. https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/ux-statistics-insights-infographic ↩

3. https://www.fullstory.com/blog/digital-experience-consumer-survey/ ↩

4. https://s3.amazonaws.com/coach-courses-us/public/theuxschool/uploads/The_Trillion_Dollar_UX_Problem.pdf ↩