Made to Stick: A Design Perspective
6 Principles to make Ideas (and designs) sticky
Sticky Ideas.
That’s the fundamental idea behind the book Made to Stick.
The authors of Made to Stick describe and analyze the principles that help make an idea sticky with an audience. The Heath brothers looked at numerous examples to understand why some ideas can so greatly influence an audience and become so memorable.
The book looks at a variety of ideas, ranging from urban legends to John F. Kennedy’s “Put a man on the moon” vision. And with each of these, the Heath brothers focus on what makes these ideas so great. They give us six principles of successful ideas and tips for applying these rules to make our own messages “stick.”
Even though the book talks about ideas in general, the principles highlighted are a great way to think about product design.
The essence of product design is about centering the product’s core idea in front of the user. And when we look at products through the lens of sticky ideas, we can start to see the application of those principles to design.
Having these “stickiness” principles as part of a design toolkit can be beneficial when solving a variety of design problems. They can not only inform product design itself but also help give structure and language to your design strategy.
There are a lot of examples out in the product world where these principles are already in play, but it might be hard to identify them. As I walk through each of these principles from the book, I have tried to incorporate real-world examples of organizations using these principles as part of their design.
1) Simplicity
Keep it simple. This is achieved by bringing the most fundamental element of your idea forward. From a design perspective, it means ensuring that the product’s core idea is clearly in front of the user.
Principle in the wild
You don’t need to look further than your browser’s new tab to find this principle at play.
Google’s Search homepage is an excellent example of keeping it simple. Even as Google has rolled multiple new features over the years, the search homepage experience remains relatively unchanged.
It’s simplicity at its best.
Focus on putting forward the product’s core idea in front of the user with a simple and straightforward user experience.
2) Unexpectedness
Surprise and delight your audience.
Go beyond the status quo. Take what users already expect and surprise them. The best product experiences are sometimes the ones that challenge the user’s expectations.
Principle in the wild
Learning a new language has long been considered a difficult and tedious process. Especially with everyone always on the move and juggling multiple priorities, picking up a new language was not considered easy.
That was everyone’s expectation.
Duolingo decided to change the status quo. Today, learning a new language on the go has never been easier.
The app takes everything we know about learning a new language and throws it out the window. The design frequently surprises us with how easy it can be to pick up a language.
3) Concreteness
Being abstract can hurt your design. Being concrete in your messaging and design can be much more powerful. This helps instill trust in the product.
Concreteness is a staple of marketing professionals, since it can be used across multiple aspects of a product, from marketing copy and design to product naming and branding.
Principle in the wild
Tesla does a great job of incorporating concreteness in its product pages. Each feature that Tesla mentions is backed by detailed information to help users trust Tesla to be the best in the space.
A mix of information, statistics, and images helps Tesla avoid abstract theories and provide concrete and straightforward information to the user.
4) Credibility
People believe ideas when they come from the authorities. Credibility can come from both internal and external authorities. Give users a reason to believe in the product through your design.
Principle in the wild
This is one of the most common principles that we can see applied in products. There are multiple ways companies show the credibility of their product:
- Social Proof
- Endorsements from Authorities
- User testimonials
- Certifications
Noom is a good example of showcasing internal and external authority through its design. They do a great job of highlighting statistics to establish credibility in the space of behavioral health programs.
5) Emotion
We love to feel.
Sometimes what connects the most with people is the emotion behind something. Users just need a reason to care.
We are irrational beings, and most of the time, appealing to a user’s system of thinking can be very impactful. A lot of product designs make the mistake of highlighting the features of their product and neglecting the benefit of using the product.
Focussing on the why rather than the how can be a great way to think about your design.
Principle in the wild
When you land on the homepage of Wealthfront.com, it’s hard to miss their emphasis on the emotions associated with finance.
Managing finances is extremely stressful, and Wealthfront knows that. As a result, their design focuses on letting the users know that they don’t need to worry about their future with Wealthfront.
Every section of the website primarily focusses on the benefits that users will get rather than the features of the app themselves. When it comes to money, we want to feel secure about the future, and Wealthfront does a great job of continually putting forth a positive future vision that the user can identify with.
6) Stories
Everyone loves a good story. Stories inspire. Stories connect.
Whenever we interweave an idea within a compelling story, that’s when you know it will last.
Design is nothing but a story about your product. Use that to help customers discover the product experience.
Principle in the wild
Storytelling is a great design tool. When thinking about this principle, I wanted to share two examples where we see stories at play in different manners.
Patagonia
Browsing the Patagonia website, it’s hard to think of them as a regular eCommerce company. On certain sections of their website, you won’t even be able to tell that they are trying to sell something.
Throughout their product experience, they put a considerable focus on the stories they want to tell.
They have a section on their website that’s just dedicated to stories, and they encourage you to visit just for those. Buying is optional.
Slack
The onboarding experience for Slack is, in itself, a well-crafted story. They even have a storyteller embedded within their application: Slackbot.
Slack always sticks to the narrative of trying to get the users to make progress with their tasks. As you start using Slack more and more, Slackbot introduces newer features to the user through Slack itself.
As a reminder, these are the six principles of sticky ideas (and designs):
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotions
- Stories
Despite the book’s focus on making ideas sticky, we can use these six principles to help think through our product experiences.
These concepts are a great way to extend our design toolkit and make our products more memorable.
Macbook Mocks — https://www.behance.net/tranmautritam
