Design Like Apple
Bring it all together.
I attended an invitation-only party in 2011 at a swanky Palo Alto restaurant to celebrate the launch of a Silicon Valley startup called Nest. Because the Valley is a hotbed of activity for technology and social media companies that are attracting a flood of venture capital and Wall Street investment, this promised to be yet another glitzy launch by an enterprising company of its latest tech product or service. Another Dropbox, perhaps, or the next must-have app designed by scruffy twentysomethings.
As it turned out, that was not the case at all. We had gathered at the chic Reposado restaurant to toast a company called Nest that was introducing, of all things, a new thermostat. Never before had I seen so much fanfare (or any fanfare, for that matter) over a thermostat. You know, that common household device that not many people really think about too much unless their home is either too hot or too cold, or if they want to save on their utility bill. Yet, like many things in the Valley, a place influenced by the titans of the tech industry as well as a spirit of innovation and design, both Nest the company and its thermostat were more than what they seemed to be.
For one thing, there were strong connections between Apple and the founders of Nest, both ex-Apple employees: Tony Fadell had led the iPod and iPhone development teams, and Matt Rogers had managed software development on those teams. More important, Nest's newfangled thermostat resembled Apple's products and services in a number of ways: It featured a simple, minimalist design and a commitment to detail and functionality, not only in the product but also to the context around it. Nest had managed to reimagine and innovate the thermostat focusing on how it looks, what it does, and a person's interaction with the device. In other words, Nest was aiming at that elusive goal I spoke about at the beginning of this book, the one I hear most often from executives who say to me, “We want to be the Apple of our industry.”
I don't know if Nest will eventually become the Apple of the home automation industry. Yet I could clearly sense that the company was out to shake things up and that design was at the core of its mission. From what I can see, the aim is to bring simplicity and control to home automation, starting with a much-needed overhaul of the woefully outdated function of the thermostat. The Nest Learning Thermostat, as it is aptly named, remembers your daily life patterns and preferences over time, and then sets the temperature for you. It integrates information from a range of sensors—including the latest weather in your area—to inform the decisions it makes. And, of course, there's an app for that: You can control the Nest thermostat from a web browser or your iPhone. It is an innovative product surrounded by an ecosystem of service and customer-friendly smarts. Sound familiar?
Like Apple, Nest has designed every aspect of the product, service, and experience. A thermostat is duh-simple, of course, but this one accomplishes a rather complex function. The industrial design created in collaboration with California-based Bould Design is minimal and direct, not unlike Apple's single-button mouse. It's essentially a giant adjustment knob with a screen at the center. The Nest designers reduced the thermostat to its essence, discarding everything that didn't need to be there. The website is simple, too, and easy to navigate. And, while Nest has a commitment to green ideals (a smart thermostat does help save energy), sustainability isn't the central value proposition. That's an astute strategy, because in the future the best products will attract us because they are great as well as because they are mindful of the environment.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is as simple to use as an iPod, and, over time, it learns patterns of use so it can predict the right temperature setting. Image: Courtesy of Nest Labs, Inc. Copyright © 2011 Dwight Eschliman.
I was so intrigued by the Nest thermostat that I put my name on the waiting list. On the order form, I clicked the box confirming that I had checked the wires of my existing thermostat for compatibility with the Nest Learning Thermostat. Then, like a kid at Christmas, I just waited for the package to arrive. When it did, I was disappointed to discover that, in fact, it wasn't compatible with the very modern two-stage system at my house, which Nest had not designed for. Upon further investigation, I realized why: The two-stage system gives a big bump in efficiency over older, single-stage systems. In other words, Nest had followed our Apple-like design advice by not creating a thermostat that would be all things to all people. Nest had pinpointed customers who would benefit the most and addressed those needs. Christmas will come again, and I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of the Nest Learning Thermostat 2!
To me, the Nest story is evidence that any company or organization can apply the principles of great design. The ideas and principles I have laid out in this book can take root in a company without a Steve Jobs at the helm. After all, design is more than one person or a discipline that can be learned by rote in design school. The Nest founders had worked with Jobs at Apple, and they had no doubt learned his ways and absorbed the Apple design culture, but they are branching off and following their own instincts and intuition. As I have pointed out, design is more than simply following rules: It is a way of thinking about the world and how it works. It is a mind-set and an approach to the development of products and services.
For many executives and managers, this book might be your first exposure to design and how design can change your company. I hope you are not turned off, even though your head is probably spinning with new words and concepts and promises that design can, like fairy dust sprinkled on your products, magically transform an ugly duckling into Prince Charming. I can't guarantee that, of course. I also recognize that many companies are wildly successful without taking design into account. Yet I sincerely believe that the principles I have outlined in this book can become a framework and a road map for creating products that go beyond “good enough” to “insanely great,” making any measure of success even more durable. And why not make great products? Stores are overloaded with mediocre and boring products that customers take little notice of as they drop them into a shopping basket. Instead of the unexciting and the ordinary, why not reach for exceptional and bold products and services that will charm and delight customers and bring them coming back for more?
As you can imagine I see design everywhere, and that's not only because I am in the profession and teach design to college students who are about to enter the field. I recognize that design is more than ever a part of the conversation, not only about business and consumer goods, but also about how we live and intentionally create things that make our lives more enjoyable and the world a better place. Much of the discussion in this book concerns aesthetics and branding and designing to meet customer needs. Yet design is also playing a critical role in solving bigger problems affecting our communities, both locally and globally. That's because, at its core, design is about applying human creativity to solve problems, whether they impact a villager in Africa, a soccer mom in America, or someone striving to improve our health or nutrition or housing or environment. Apple products have charisma, but so does an affordable solar-powered lighting system that helps children who live in places with no electricity to do their schoolwork at night.
Over the years, I have worked with many executives who have sought our help at LUNAR to introduce design into their business. There have been many favorable outcomes along the way, like the Intel Reader, the Oral-B CrossAction, and the Novint Falcon, among others. But sometimes it hasn't been easy or successful. I've seen many projects that started with ambitious design goals go belly-up because of organizational inertia or the infection of an aggressive “antibody” that kills design, be it a lack of understanding about design or a reluctance to abandon traditional practices. Yet through it all I have never lost faith in the power of design and the potential it possesses to make a difference. Your company needn't become an Apple clone. It could, however, become the next iconic player in its industry, whatever that might be, using design as a blueprint and a North Star.
To help get you there, I have outlined seven principles in this book that decode what Apple does. Use these principles in your own organization to start a conversation about what is working and what isn't, and how design can play a role in the creative process.
The journey starts with this: Recognize that design makes a difference. It's the key to devising extreme emotional engagement between your company and its customers, to fashioning beautiful aesthetic expressions, to connecting to your customers with charismatic offerings, and to infusing your products with ingenuity and innovation. To embed design into the corporate culture at all levels and elevate the importance of the product as message and messenger in an age of too much information, look to the context and systems and platforms that emanate from a product or service to extend its influence. Go inside the design studio—or, better yet, turn the office into a design studio— to think out loud with collaborators about ideas and concepts and prototypes that help visualize the future with better products.
Finally, develop a sense of empathy and a human-centered design ethos that put you in touch with your customers and their needs. And, amid all that careful listening, temper the empathy with your own voice that is spoken loudly and clearly and with consistency and conviction. Design is not just fairy dust. It's hard work. Most of all, design is a prism through which to see the world and all things in it, and this and will lead you to creating insanely great products.