Page 227 - The Apple Experience

that people knew what they wanted until he showed it to them. In many
ways he was right. Many people wouldn’t think about it at the time but they

did, indeed, crave simplicity and space in their physical environments.

Jobs intuitively understood what neuroscientists would later find through

electroencephalograph (EEG) and magnetic resonance image (MRI) brain

scans. According to Dr. A. K. Pradeep, who founded Berkeley, California–

based NeuroFocus, a neurological testing firm for consumer behavior,

“Memory processing is influenced by suppressing distractions. Don’t
overwhelm the brain, forcing it to expend more energy.”
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Pradeep argues that eliminating distractions applies to the physical in-

store experience as well as the way messages are delivered. “Keep the message

obvious and direct, and keep the copy and images clean and uncluttered. Let

the message ‘breathe’ with some white space around it. And avoid the

impulse to load up messages with sounds, running screens, and quick

animation.” Pradeep is one of the world’s leading neuromarketing
researchers, pioneering the application of neuroscience in marketing,

advertising, and messaging. Pradeep concludes from his research that

simplicity improves the shopping experience in every aspect. “Finding

additional information, streamlining the purchase experience, transporting

products to your home, opening the package, or fixing a problem, simplicity

must be a core component of the consumer’s experience.”
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Complexity Simplified

When the Apple Store celebrated its tenth anniversary, a site called Visual

Merchandising and Store Design (vmsd.com) asked a group of design experts

for their thoughts on Apple Store design. Most pointed to the simple,