We’ve been saying it for years, but there’s clear proof that simple design works.
Simplistic Designs
As designers you’ll often hear us insisting less is more. You might even find yourself disagreeing with us when we advise to strip down your design. Or remove what we perceive as too much information. And there’s a good reason why.
Naturally you want to make sure all your customers have all the information they need in front of them? After all there’s plenty of market research and focus groups that say this is what people want…but there’s a catch.
In a recent episode of Supermarket Shopping Secrets on BBC1, research company Nielsen revealed some extremely interesting findings. By tapping into our brains, they have proof that what we believe we want, and what we actually do want, can be two very different things.
By using Electroencephalography (EEG) through a cap reading electrical activity from people’s brains, they were able to measure emotional responses. In this case it was a range of shampoo packaging products on a supermarket shelf. By using this in conjunction with eye tracking they were able to pinpoint where people were looking, and crucially through EEG – why.
The results showed a definite pattern. The products with the most simple, stripped back packaging produced the best emotional response. This means we are much more likely to buy them.
They narrowed the tests further, comparing two sets of the same branded packaging. One containing more information on the label, one much less. People were overwhelmingly more engaged with the simpler version.
Consumers will always need a level of information, but we believe brands can boost their performance by ensuring all their information has good room to breathe.
We always have your customers in mind. We don’t design just to make something look ‘nice’, we design for a purpose. And that purpose is the success of your brand.
See how we re-positioned Show Business Interiors‘ brand to create a simple design that offered the premium feel they were looking for.
