The power of Software Branding
In software development, most people would talk about the technical parameters – detailed planning, quality measures and criteria, ongoing support and maintenance. While they are all important to the success of an application, they wouldn’t get anywhere without the seamless delivery of non-programming elements – branding, UX, and UI design.
Branding is the emotional positioning of a product as perceived by its customers. Product branding is achieved through a combination of factors, including the product name and logo, use of colour, text, graphics, and sound, the style of various other design elements, marketing, and most importantly, the attributes of the product experience itself.
It takes years of hard work to build a positive brand image, and even more hard work to maintain it, but a company’s brand all starts with great design.
On the other hand, the goal of software branding is to associate the brand with the style and quality of the product and its experience. Too often, developers attempt to achieve this by drawing attention to the program itself. The result is to distract users instead of delight them.
When well done, software branding has these attributes:
- Establishes a clear, distinct style and personality.
- Creates an emotional connection.
- Has high quality.
- Is strategically placed and consistently executed.
- Aligns to the overall brand strategy.
- Is long-lasting...as enjoyable the thousandth time as it was the first.
Branding and design is what translates the ideas into communication. And many designers will work through both the strategy and the implementation to ensure that the results are consistent, adaptable and in-keeping with your original brand attributes.