Wrapping up the web app
There are some web based applications that I use every day. I use Spotify to listen to music, Remember the Milk to organise my life, Tweetdeck to force my opinions on unsuspecting followers and Evernote to record clippings of inspiration and ideas. While thinking about the design of web apps one thing has really stuck in my mind. In an article by Luke W he talked about thinking and designing web applications as products, if web app is a product, design considerations such as customer lifecycle and packaging should be considered.
It made me think if Spotify is the product then what is the packaging? It doesn’t come in a box? The packing of these applications is the website that promotes it. This is the chance that the company has to promote its product and looking towards the restraints and considerations of physical packaging design can help strengthen a design. It gives a narrative for a designer to follow when creating and designing the most effective solution.

The large image used on the tweetdeck homepage makes the product very visible, allowing users to see the product in context.
What can we learn from packaging design?
Packaging has certain contextual and physical constraints.
- Space is limited to the size of box or DVD sleeve so information must be delivered concisely and efficiently.
- Exposure to a potential customer is brief. They may only be walking past or scanning a shelf in a shop.
- Customers will want to see a product so packaging must find a way to make the product visible, either through large, high quality pictures or by making the product physically viewable such as meat wrapped in clear packaging in a supermarket.

The evernote homepage does a good job a quickly communicating the purpose of the product using a limited amount of space and requiring limtied reading time.
Applying this to the web
These are interesting points but how do we apply them to the design of a web apps accompanying website.
- The website should always attempt to get information to the user as easily, quickly and concisely as possible. Copy should be short and sweet, pages should be kept to a minimum, titles and actions should be obvious and users should be able to navigate to content quickly and easily.
- Web users are famously impatient. They will not stick around of they do not get what they want quickly and easily. Just like physical customers time is limited. Benefits and key information must be delivered fast.
- A web application is not a physical product so how can we make this visible to the user? Screenshots, descriptions, videos, tutorials, testimonials, are all ways to make the product visible. The important thing is to let the user learn about the product before they have to download it.
These are all things that most UX designers will already be thinking of but wrapping them up in this analogy or narrative helps to deliver a thought process or a checklist to design against. If you want to learn more about our approach to design feel free to give us a phone on 0207 1991 321 or send us a message.
information architecture, interface design, usability design, user centred design, user interface





There are two camps out there at the moment:




Only a week has passed since one of the most significant design faux pars of recent times launched.

Another day another mission to make forms simple.