How the biggest companies broke design trends to succeed
While there are many ways to define what makes a good design, like choosing from various colours or adapting a font and keeping things uniform throughout your product, the most important aspect is identifying that ‘one thing’ that will make the product unparalleled.
The most crucial aspect is the ‘why’. The ‘why’ can be the most innovative aspect of your design.
That’s what makes your business stand out among all others. If you can offer an innovative take on an old product or concept, your users will remember you better than someone else.
This piece will look at how the most innovative companies based out of silicon valley broke the design trends to succeed.
How Apple’s “Think Different” slogan is brought to life:
Apple Inc. has always been an industry disrupter. Steve Jobs was the first to lead them to success by ignoring all the conventional wisdom.
He was behind some of the world’s most revolutionary products. He believed that the technology that will make a great product is not the technology itself but the people who use it. Hence, he focused on making the products user-friendly.
For instance, like many tech companies, Apple understood the importance of the tablet PC since the ’90s. But Jobs decided to wait until he thought the technology was advanced enough to shape an entirely new device.
“We’ve always been shameless about stealing great ideas” — Steve Jobs.
Being the first to introduce something is worth it; after all, the second mouse gets the cheese.
Making touchscreen devices the bread and butter of our lives:
In the past, the cell phone market skewed towards big, bulky phones, like the Blackberry phones, a device aimed at business people and creative professionals.
Most phones at that time had large keyboards. So, it was a surprise when Steve Jobs himself took to the stage presenting a device that didn’t have any physical keyboard whatsoever, breaking several user experience design trends. It was a revolutionary product that defined the way we interact with technology.
However, touchscreens are not a new technological innovation. They were invented a long time ago — or at least the technology was, but there wasn’t an application in mainstream society. Early smartphones were released with touchscreens on them, but they were costly and didn’t have as many features, so people did not see them as a product that should be adopted en masse.
Apple changed the paradigm by creating a suitable phone for the consumer market. iPhones, iPads, and iPods have easy to use interfaces, with the entire experience streamlined. In addition, these devices were smaller and lighter than other smartphones, and it shattered the wall between consumers and business users.
Apple products are still regarded as the standard of excellence by consumers, compare to all other technological products. The Apple products are more reliable, elegant and artistic than their counterparts from other companies. Jobs’ style of design emphasised clean lines, inoffensive looks, and ease of use. Steve Jobs left a legacy of great products in his wake.
Introduction of M1 chips as a breakthrough in tech:
Moreover, Apple’s unveiling of the newest M1 chips for the new generation of Mac computers is seen as a breakthrough moment in tech. Utilizing their own custom-designed processor, users will be able to enjoy a full day’s battery life
Frequently, companies outsource the production process of computer chipsets to third parties with little to no oversight. However, in the case of Apple’s new M1 chipset, they have had full control over the whole design and production of this chip. With a larger scope of control over the chipset creation process, there are several benefits that can be harvested.
Most notably is a significant positive impact on battery life as well as an improvement in performance. Another benefit lies in the ability to run iOS applications onto Mac computers because Apple now has full control over both operating systems.
It’s startling how successful this strategy was for Apple with its iPhone and iPad devices; therefore they went to great lengths ensuring the same amount of success was replicated within their computers.
As their slogan read, “Think Different”, — that was precisely what they did. Apple’s design process wasn’t a process; it was a way of thinking.
How Facebook pioneered the rise of social media:
By building the biggest social network on the planet, Facebook has broken down barriers between people all over the world. The influence of social networks is phenomenal — they’re set to have a more significant impact than the printing press did in the Renaissance.
Facebook is the largest social networking site with over 2.6 billion monthly active users. Before Facebook, social networking sites like Myspace were the big thing, and Facebook quickly overtook them in popularity. Facebook has also spurred other social networking sites to compete with it, for instance, Twitter, Flickr and Foursquare.
The rise of social media can be credited to Facebook’s success. Its growth massively outpaced that of MySpace, which was once the most recognised social network. It fell out of favour as Facebook grew ever more dominant, ultimately driving down its popularity until it became merely a memory.
No matter what the future holds for Facebook, it will always be remembered as a social media pioneer.
In an interview with CNBC, Mark Zuckerberg reflected on Facebook’s journey. “I was 19 when I started Facebook, and I didn’t know anything about building a company or global internet service,” Zuckerberg said. “Over the years, I’ve made almost every mistake you can imagine. I’ve made dozens of technical errors and bad deals,” he added.
But how did Facebook beat Myspace?
Myspace was guilty of spending too much money on advertising its site instead of updating its technologies. In comparison, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg allowed his consumers to dictate how the website should be used through various technological advancements. This approach led to the creative freedom for users to find potential friends easily and constantly receive updates on what they were doing.
The founders kept pushing the envelope and allowed the technology to do whatever users desired with it.
You’ve got to go where your customers are — just don’t forget about them as you grow!
How Google emerged as the most powerful tech giant:
Google has been a significant force in the development of the technology and design sector. The fact that it became a verb — “Google it!” says it all.
Google has become synonymous with Internet searching.
Many things make Google the most desired brand of all time. How Google broke the design trends is one of them. When Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched Google in 1998, it shocked the world.
The search engine had an unconventional design. They had a minimalistic design that was different from their counterparts. People started to realise that there is more to design than meets the eye. Google’s focus on simplicity, intuitiveness, and clean design (along with myriad technical factors) for the search engine interface has made it the most popular search engine globally.
Making Google the most used search engine:
In the late 1990s, Google’s founders realised that although it was beneficial for Internet surfers to have a vast supply of information from many sources available to them at any given moment, it could be extremely overwhelming. So they decided to make things easier: by ranking web pages according to their popularity when searching for them online.
It made information assessable and efficient. Unlike Yahoo, where the exact website needed to be typed, google searched any phrase or words and provided reliable sources.
A quick recap of how Google is the most used search engine:
- User-first mentality
- Developing strong trust through better results
- Creating the best video search engine: Youtube
- Producing an image search engine
Google did not limit itself to just the search engine; it kept pushing the envelope. It developed its vast range of services, from smartphones to webmail to social networks to storage to video sharing to earth mapping.
As they say, Google Search is now the same as air — the absence of which makes it tough to live.
Google didn’t stick to “focus and master just one thing”; instead, it expanded and researched billions of people.
How Gojek went on to being Indonesia’s first decacorn:
Gojek’s commitment to innovation has been a major reason for its early success.
One of Gojek’s greatest strengths is the company’s determination to pivot when it feels that it needs to. Ever since it got started back in 2010 as a ride-hailing call centre, Gojek has had a lot of ups and downs in terms of its business model.
After investors saw through the huge potential Gojek had, the company secured a significant amount of funding.
In its earliest phases, Gojek had four services: the ride-hailing feature GoRide, the delivery service GoSend; the grocery service GoMart; and the food delivery service GoFood.
However, these four separate industries were all delivered through one app. Although the strategy was met with scepticism from those following them, they prevailed and made steady progress because of this strong foundation.
After several launches in various verticals, including food, finance, medical, payment, entertainment (and more), Gojek soon rose to become the first decacorn from Indonesia.
With over half a dozen apps on the market today, Gojek has proven that when you give your customers what they need within a singular application rather than splitting efforts between several individual applications with no synergy between them, success will come a lot quicker!
Closing thoughts
Design trends are important when you’re starting your own business. In fact, small businesses will need many of these design trends to flourish and be noticed by the market they’re entering.
But to have a truly innovative business and succeed in this day and age, there’s no substitute for ignoring the existing trends and shaping your path forward based on what you feel is the best thing for your users.
It’s times like these that some of the most successful innovators pop up.
The Canvs Editorial team comprises of: Editorial Writer and Researcher- Paridhi Agrawal and Anjali Baliga, the Editor’s Desk- Aalhad Joshi and Debprotim Roy, and Content Operations- Abin Rajan
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