Why great design matters
By: Annie Crossland
The best designs start with an even better story.
Often, the process of finding that story is messy – involving late evening sessions spent scrawling ideas and concepts across notebooks. The challenge is figuring out how to turn those sketches into a clear, cohesive visual that delivers your message and product to investors, customers, partners, your team, and more.
In nascent, fast-changing markets like the sustainability sector, it’s notoriously difficult to communicate new and novel product ideas quickly enough. Design can make the difference between someone writing off your idea or understanding your product to the point of investment.
Here’s why design matters in the early stages of your climate startup, according to our lead designer, Annie Crossland.
Six reasons why great design matters
(1) First impressions matter.
According to Malcolm Gladwell in ‘Blink’, it takes just 2.6 seconds to make a good first impression. The same applies to design. First impressions are 94% influenced by design, and visual appeal almost always outweighs usability – at least at first.
We know that first reactions are visceral, and they shape the way that your users perceive your relevance, credibility, and even usability. By simplifying designs as much as possible, creating balanced layouts, and conducting frequent user testing to measure first impressions, we can incorporate this knowledge throughout the design process to create the most effective product possible.
(2) Design is the foundation of great business.
They say business is art. As Katrina Alcorn points out, former IBM CEO, Thomas Watson Jr.’s belief that ‘good design is good business’ rings as true today as it did fifty years ago.
Weaving design into every part of a company is the foundation of a great business. It means adopting a human-centered mindset when solving business problems. Embracing design also means becoming obsessed with the user experience. If your product solves a real-life need, and does that well and enjoyably, then people are far more likely to come back to your product and choose it over a competitor.
The same can be said for buyers’ motivations to buy.
When marketing direct-to-consumer climate solutions, companies will often pull attention away from the solution’s sustainability credentials to shift focus on to performance. For instance, the incredible rise in popularity of Tesla cars was due to their appealing design, impressive performance, as well as their green credentials. Similarly, Community Fibre markets its broadband as the fastest, most reliable broadband available in London. What customers might not realise is that it’s also a greener alternative.
With increasing competition, design is a crucial differentiator for elevating your product or service from an otherwise crowded market. At Cirevo, we help you ensure that your product design communicates your vision and brand cohesively – embedding the principals of user design and customer experience throughout.
(3) Design drives action, including conversion.
How do we inspire action? If your answer involves any of the following – ‘by telling a good story’, ‘by emotionally connecting with your audience’, or ‘helping customers see the “why”’, then you’d be right…
Design can be used to do all of the above. It helps your customer understand what a product, service, or brand can do for them. It takes them along on a journey and asks them to invest in the brand.
“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
(4) Great design builds trust in the short- and long-term.
I think we’ve all landed on a website only to have our ‘digital’ fight or flight response kick into action if something doesn’t look ‘right’.
After all, design is essential in building trust – both at first glance and throughout the user experience. If, at any point, your audience finds your web application, pitch deck, or mobile app confusing, clunky or cluttered, they are far more likely to disengage before they realise its value. If well-designed dashboards, intuitive apps, and thoughtfully crafted pitch decks reassure your audience and make their lives easier, then trust will deepen naturally.
(5) Design is intrinsically collaborative…
… which means that when working with the right design team, you’ll also have a strategic partner where you can give and take from each other.
As part of our design services at Cirevo, we start with a discovery consultation to understand the brief, create initial low-fidelity (low-fi) designs, collaborate in Figma, request feedback, and update accordingly. Once we’re ready to launch into hi-fi designs, we then encourage user testing with potential customers or audiences to gather market research.
In this way, the best designs are those that translate the stories of your customers, business, use case, and competitors into something that ‘feels’ right.
(6) Investing in design services saves more than it costs.
We know that every resource counts in the early stages. It can be tempting to cut corners on design, but poor design choices will likely lead to costly reworks, slower growth, and lost opportunities. Investing in high-quality design from the outset ensures that your assets – brand identity, pitch decks, websites, dashboards, and more – support rather than hinder you. It also saves you from having to keep redoing them before every pitch!
So, what’s the bottom line?
Investing in design early means setting yourself up for success. Once you have your product screens, a clear and cohesive style, and a strong, well-designed pitch deck, you can expect to strengthen your first impressions, boost sales, and further down the line, build customer loyalty and drive future category leadership.
Get your idea seen today with Cirevo.
If you’ve got the vision, we’ve got the design. Explore our on-demand design packages here.
Find out more at Cirevo.com/design-service.
More about Cirevo
Cirevo helps bring high-impact technology products to life. Our multidisciplinary team combines technical expertise with deep domain knowledge in environmental and data science. From digital design to development, we partner with circular economy and climate tech innovators to deliver science-backed solutions for a sustainable and regenerative future.
