Steve Jobs was a marketing genius. He was a perfectionist with an eye for design. While Jobs was not a website designer, his experiences provide key website design lessons – both his wins and losses.
1. What The Back Of The Wooden Cabinet Has To Do With A Visually Appealing Website
When Steve Jobs was a young boy, his father taught him woodwork. One day, while working on a chest of drawers, his father said something to him that stayed with Steve for life.
“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
Those words resulted in a lifelong obsession with visually appealing design for Steve Jobs. From straight lines on the circuit boards to round edges on iPhone icons, no detail was too minor. Everything had to look stunning.
This attention to detail and visual appeal helped Apple products go beyond normal electronics and become fashion accessories.
When it comes to designing your website, visual appeal matters. It is important to have a professional, modern and visually attractive website. That does not mean it has to the best looking website in the world. As long as it uses high quality images, nice fonts and colours and has a modern and clean layout – that is what it means to have a good looking website.
2. Apple’s First Market Failure: Website Design Is Not Enough, Content Also Matters
Coming off the success of Apple II, Apple had all the resources in the world to build Apple III. It had a talented technical team, the money to build it and a hungry market that was ready to buy.
Yet Apple III was a failure. Why?
Jobs was so focussed on the visual design of the Apple III that he prioritised the look over all else. The result was a good looking computer box that was too small to house the circuitry needed for the computer’s key features. They could not even fit in a cooling fan.
This created serious performance issues and despite great initial enthusiasm about the Apple III, sales dropped and it failed in the market.
What this Means for Website Design
Yes you need to ensure that your website looks modern and attractive, but you also need quality content to engage your site visitors. You need useful information to answer key concerns and nurture your prospects and convert them into paying customers.
3. Social Proof Helps Your Website Visitors Decide
After months of trying, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak finally landed a major investor to fund the commercialisation of the first Apple computer. The investor’s only condition was that Wozniak had to quit his job and commit to Apple full-time.
Wozniak had no plans to quit his secure job. When Jobs tried to persuade him to quit his job, Wozniak refused.
But Jobs did not give up.
Jobs called everyone in Wozniak’s social circle and persuaded them to encourage Wozniak to quit his job. Soon everyone was calling Wozniak. Eventually, an old friend convinced Wozniak of the potential of the Apple venture and Wozniak agreed to quit his job and join Apple full-time.
What this Means for Website Design
Steve Jobs knew that we care about what other people think. If you add social proof to your website, your site will be more effective in persuading prospects into becoming customers.
Testimonials, client portfolio, affiliation logos, media coverage, awards, Facebook Likes, Twitter feeds are all forms of social proof. They show that other people like and trust you. This improves the likelihood of a site visitor buying from you.
Conclusion
Use the above tips to create a website that engages and converts visitors into customers.
If you want a brilliant website for your brilliant business, Contact Kidis Creative Today
Original link: http://yourwebdesignshop.com.au/3-web-design-lessons-from-steve-jobs/