Small hassles and extra steps can sharply reduce action.
More quotesA gorilla went shopping and the customers barely noticed. Meanwhile, a brand team is debating whether the new green is three per cent more vibrant.
People inside a project stare. Shoppers glance. That difference accounts for a heroic amount of wasted design work. The label receives six weeks of forensic attention in a studio, then enters an aisle where someone is steering a trolley, remembering milk and preventing a child from weaponising a baguette. They reach for the usual colour block and move on. Digital customers are no nobler: familiar checkouts get tapped through, banners dismissed and tooltips closed before the verb arrives.
“But it’s striking” means nothing without a state of attention. Striking on a presentation board is not striking beside 30,000 products during a habitual task. The design has to interrupt at the decision point, connect quickly to a recognised need and make the changed action easier than continuing on autopilot. Sometimes location beats beauty. Shape beats another claim. A useful physical interruption beats a louder shade of green. Test in the messy place where the choice occurs, not beneath tasteful studio lighting. Attention is earned in context. If the gorilla cannot earn it, your subtle brand evolution has bugger-all chance.