Is Design Valuable as a Maker?

Published on

March 5th, 2019

Author

Becoming a Maker

Making stuff online is hard. From acquiring a memorable domain to designing the interface and building the code to deploying in production and eventually making cash money 💰💰💰, there are so many steps to putting something on the web.

There was no way I could do this year long experiment alone. Surrounding myself with an amazing group of talented folks, I was lucky enough to have continual motivation and feedback throughout the year. From my best friend Dixon (with a massive digital publishing business of his own) to a group we call the Collective™ that updates each other Every. Single. Friday. I had enough design, code and marketing resources to get through the hard parts of making web products.

Creating the Test

In order to control for design as the primary reason for success, I stuck to redesigning generic web tools with existing audiences: yet another gradient tool, a gallery of desktop backgrounds, and a meta tag generator. Design constraints were limited to product simplification, friendly defaults (color palettes, etc), visual design, and animation.

To prove business value, I targeted valuable keywords that have a high cost per click (meaning they require a high Adsense budget to drive traffic).

With my super boring product ideas, I was off and running with ambitions to launch several monetized sites this year.

1. CSS Gradient

The first project felt like it had to be good to really build momentum for the rest of the year. Through an innocent tweet the idea was born…why isn't there a nice gradient tool online?

Little did I know I had gotten into a mess of product work with edge cases eating at every part of the app. Starting in December it took me three months (nights and weekends) just to write the JavaScript let alone design the app!

So what were the results? Targeting the keyword "css gradient", the project is ranked #2 in Google (with about 30k monthly uniques) but with only a 1/4 of the traffic of the top ranked site. From obscurity to top two is a solid achievement, but doesn’t fully sell the value of design.

I needed a simpler product!

2. Cool Backgrounds

So this project was a complete distraction and not part of the original plan, but the traffic made it so enticing. I discovered during the process of building css gradient that apparently 200k people search for “cool backgrounds” every month. 🤔

This turned out to be a very straightforward product (I mean I could have literally just made a gallery of images that were cool). But I believed that creating a unique product design experience would expedite the rate of sharing which would drive more backlinks and a higher rank.

Holy hell! 😈 From a quiet first product to an explosive second launch, Cool Backgrounds defied all expectations.

The bright, happy colors and playful animations helped it not only rank #1 but also quickly become a significant resource in tech. Admittedly it’s weird being at dinner parties in SF and random people have used Cool Backgrounds (and nothing else I’ve built). 🤦‍♂️

Needless to say design had proven its value here. But could I continue the trend?

3. Gradient Backgrounds and 4. Service List

Can you imagine even less product work?? Lists are all the rage on Product Hunt and Twitter, so it seemed like a perfect test bed for my design hypothesis.

Gradient Backgrounds was built over two weekends and is at its core just an eight-item list of gradient palette websites. Add a bit of CSS and cool animated transitions and it was the top product of the day and ranked #2 in Google!

Service List rides the momentum of unlimited services and was shipped in a single weekend. The wild gradient and simple layout also landed it at the top of Product Hunt and Google (since then it's been redesigned to be considerably more useful).

While it's still early (Google uses site age in it's ranking algorithm), Service List is currently ranked around #2-5 for "unlimited graphic design" a low volume but high buying intent keyword. While the previous projects make money with ads, Service List generates revenue through an affiliate model, passing visitors to each of the services and getting a small commission if the visitor becomes a paying customer.

It seemed like I had figured it out…design is the key to business and marketing success.

5. Meta Tags

This was the one. Months and months of work and design iterations.

Launch: Top of Product Hunt, 1K Twitter favs and shared all over the design community.

But it landed with a thud…the market is miniscule.

I ignored the experiment's parameters and the keyword research thinking I could expand an emerging market. But design ultimately can’t overcome a product that only a few people need, and that’s still the most important metric.

While I’m still proud of the design effort, it stings to be corrected on the fundamentals of product. Lesson learned: build things people want.

Takeaway

So is design valuable?

Even with the final project having less success, I’m confident that if your product is useful, design accelerates growth like no other channel.

Your product is easier to onboard, enjoyable to use day to day, and creates a general feeling of happiness — causing users to naturally share your product! Compared to most software, design is such a significant differentiator that a well designed product is capable of dominating any industry (see Apple, Tesla, Stripe, Coinbase, Gusto, etc).

The goal for this year was to prove business value based on design and with passive income and a network of highly ranked websites, I’m concluding the experiment a success.

Comments (4)

Ammons Ammons

Thanks for this

The benefits of design are many, but they are not the only ones. In fact, there are other aspects of design that are actually valuable. Design is not just about aesthetics; it’s about how the product looks and how it fits with the space it’s placed in. You need to check https://masterbundles.com/angel-... for more interesting designing ideas. Through this blog post we will share with you exactly how we started our own photoshop and video marketing company Masterbundles. Design can also influence how a product performs and the way the customer feels about it. So, yes, design can be valuable, but it’s not the only value that’s valuable.

Share 2yr ago

Anonymous

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As a maker design is extremely valuable. It allows you to take an idea and turn it into a physical product. Design is also important when it comes to marketing and selling your product. A well-designed product will be more appealing to potential customers and will be more likely to sell. I have got this information technology dissertation help online for info as design is also valuable when it comes to manufacturing. A well-designed product will be easier and less expensive to manufacture.

Share 2yr ago

Madina O'ferlin

I am a professional academic writer

The question of whether design is valuable as a maker is one that has been asked by many people over the years. There are a variety of opinions on this topic, but I believe that design is valuable as a maker. I believe that everyone has the potential to be a maker. We all have the ability to create something that is beautiful and unique. However, it is up to each individual to decide whether or not they want to pursue this potential. For example I am really creative person, and that's why I am s student of Parsons School of Design it was my school dream that has come true. I really live studying, really love process of the creation smth really individual, new and interesting, but I am so bad in writing smth. Yes, it sound great, but I am a creative designer, who has a lot of troubles writing some papers on the basis of projects I create. But I find the solution, I always rely on https://advanced-writer.com/ the service with excellent writers who have rescued me numerous times.

Share 1yr ago

var Lar

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