Aesthetics don’t need to be superficial
How your product looks and feels should be meaningful. The best product design uses aesthetic styles to express values, direct attention, and resonate with users.
Brand identity with SlowLettuce
The look and feel of your product matter. As useful as a minimum viable product can be, as soon as you want to start retaining users and driving growth, it’s time to be looking your professional best.
At SlowLettuce, we don’t do deep philosophical workshops. Early-stage startup life is too dynamic. Too much is subject to change. Instead, we think product should lead brand. This pragmatic approach is the most versatile and cost-effective
Aesthetic foundations
- Differentiation
- Fundamentally, we want to create a unique look and feel that visually distinguishes you from your competitors.
- User preferences
- Along with being unique, we want to resonate with your users. Taking into consideration the emotional values and aesthetic preferences they have.
- Identity
- In addition to the first two points, we also want to represent and emphasise your internal vision and competitive advantage.
“Functional isn’t enough anymore. For the best chance to connect with your users, make sure you’re looking your competitive best.”
Jeremy Lefèbre
Founder | SlowLettuce
Workflow
Creating a new look and feel for your product
Competitor analysis
We’ll conduct a visual audit of your market competitors to understand how they present themselves. During this, we’ll identify ‘white spaces’ and opportunity areas. These will form the foundations of visual differentiation.
Inspiration
The flip side of competitor analysis is inspiration. Here we're looking for examples of things we want to emulate. This can include industry examples, but not usually. The most interesting inspiration is often found in unrelated industries. The broader the field of influence, the more unique the final result.
Identity
What is the essence of the value you deliver to your users? How can we represent this visually to enhance the experience? This is perhaps the most creative and elusive part of the process. We’ll draw from our design toolkit to create and explore various possibilities.
Emphasis
With these aesthetic foundations well-defined, we’re ready to apply our styles to the user interface. Here we’ll align the functionality of the product with the emotional component of our aesthetics. When function and emotion are well aligned, the effect is incredibly powerful.
