【Gulab 69 (2025) Hindi Web Series】

Let’s be Gulab 69 (2025) Hindi Web Serieshonest: Snapchat has defied conventional design aesthetic and user experience.

By any objective measure, the app should not have been a successful endeavor. Yet, here we are. Snapchat is one of the most popular interactive platforms in the digital space. It has more users than LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Twitter, and its daily video views have increased 400% year over year.

The app is poised to continue its explosive growth because it gives the end user something that they didn’t even know they wanted — and now can’t seem to live without. As someone who believes in the value of design, this disconnect has always intrigued me. How could something that breaks traditional aspects of design be so popular?

Our Approach

This question illuminates the evolution of “design value.” Outside of tried and true methods, smart visual aesthetics and well-thought user experiences, designing for the Snapchat world (and frankly, the future) has become more about what resonates with humans and their needs and whether or not it works.

But why does it work when you break the rules? It works because people are human and they have unique needs. Designers need to consider this above all else. The other piece that’s interesting is Snapchat exists not because the app’s experience is great, but because of immediacy, informality, and instant video. It allows people to create content that requires no thought, no editing, and no polish — an approach users have clearly found increasingly irresistible.

At Ready Set Rocket, we believe the success of Snapchat—despite its deficiencies—hints at a new definition for what "good design” means.

Good design is distinctive, coherent, and effective (even if it isn’t traditionally “attractive”)

You can see this principle in action in other places as well. Reddit, for example, has long prioritized authenticity and content over aesthetics and also continues to thrive. For them and many others, good design means thinking bigger, not thinking perfect — a lesson we should all pay attention to.

The same goes for meme culture. Memes have aided in the liberation of amateur visuals. They’re quick, down and dirty, unpolished graphics yet highly effective at communicating a thought or emotion across a range of demographics.

So how do you design in this new world? We give our team three key pieces of advice.

1. Be Courageous

Always try something new. Just because an approach is out there and established does not mean it’s the right solution. We are a young discipline in a young industry, and while it’s tempting to fall back on what’s been tried and proven, that’s not always the best answer for the problem you are trying to solve.

This requires swapping perfectionism for experimentation. For some brands, this means being ugly to get a response (think Bloomberg Businessweek) or being distinct even when that appears unpolished at first blush (see the new Met museum logo).

It’s our responsibility as designers to push the boundaries for the right solution, especially since in many cases, the right solution doesn’t exist yet.

2. Design for the forest, not the trees

Yes, perfect kerning on one layout is great, but what really makes something successful these days is how well it works across multiple touches. That’s why, when jumping into design, an approach we encourage on our team is getting 80% done as quickly as possible before polishing.

One way we encourage this is with an exercise called Crazy Eights. Adapted from Google Ventures, this practice challenges designers to use pencil and paper to rapidly sketch 8 potential solutions to a design problem in 8 minutes before stepping back to decide on an approach. This forces us to identify the right direction before getting too far in the weeds, resulting in more strategic designs and a more efficient process than the traditional polish-as-you-go workflow.

Throughout this process, focus on multiplicity. A single experience is the result of many design pieces working together in a beautiful way. This, of course, requires more complex thinking. However, the ability to apply one consistent vision across many working parts is ultimately the key to creating an evocative experience.

A great example is Maple, David Chang’s premium Manhattan food delivery service. From the site and app through to the food containers and vests for delivery, the experience is absolutely seamless. While the design is clean and simple, it’s clear that most of the thought and energy has gone into ensuring every single detail of the customer’s journey is impeccably guided. The result is absolutely best-in-class.

3. Remember: It’s for everyone else, not just for you

Empathy. Something every designer needs to consider above all else. As designers, we’re making websites, apps, things for real human beings who have specific mindsets and goals. We often forget to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and instead focus on what it looks like or how it functions in a vacuum versus in real life.

End-to-end, good design doesn’t need to be overly complicated but rather should aim to solve a larger challenge. Casper, the mattress company, does an impeccable job at turning empathy into design that works in the real world. They leveraged a real human truth (mattress shopping sucks and delivery is difficult) to develop a simply designed, smart product and even more delightful shopping experience.

Beyond this, the makers of Casper didn’t have to design a product that fit inside of a box to simplify the lives of everyone else despite cost implications on the company’s bottom line. They did it anyway.

Conclusion

Design in a Snapchat world is design with a much larger definition. As technology continues to evolve, so too do user expectations and the necessity of crafting coherent experiences with multiple touch points across lots of different media. Keeping up requires thinking in systems rather than thinking in standards— putting design in a position to have greater impact on a business than ever before.

Basic systematic rules, such as visual consistency and clear UI, used to guide every designer’s approach to creating an app or website. These were obvious goals for any given project. Not necessarily easy to accomplish, but accepted across the board as what to strive for. However, all that is changing. Technology trends and user expectations are constantly in flux, forcing major shifts in design thinking.

Following the rules is no longer a prerequisite to success, and as we’ve seen with the overwhelming popularity of Snapchat, breaking them can even be an effective strategy.

Cole Sletten is Creative Director at Ready Set Rocket, a full service Digital Marketing Agency that specializes in Digital Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Marketing, Web Design, and more. Cole specializes in the fusion of strategic brand thinking and empathetic interaction design, as well as leads high-end digital projects for RSR's wide range of clients, from the live-action immediacy of sports brands to the style of top fashion retailers and the data-driven complexity of finance.