The 120-Year-Old Framework Design Schools Don't Teach
You just can't afford to skip this
Take a moment and watch the video ad below-
Did the first 4 seconds captivate your attention, with your brain shouting with curiosity — “What’s coming next?”
And then from the 5th to the 11th second, did you just get more connected to the tension coming out from the screen? The race is about to begin, the protagonist kid is giving a deterministic nod to his mom, and then the mom takes out her Apple iPhone 14, setting her stance and switching to the Action Mode. Now you are super hooked to receive the message Apple is going to deliver in the next 20 seconds to spike your desire for the product, make your brain want to experience it once.
So, how did Apple succeed in delivering such a compelling communication without any celebrity endorsement or spending a massive budget on this?
It succeeded because they strategically designed the visual communication using a 120-year-old advertising framework that continues to drive billion-dollar campaigns today.
It’s the AIDA model
The AIDA model outlines the 4 stages a customer goes through before making a purchase decision, which are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Let’s understand each one of them -
Attention- The first goal is to make your customers aware that your product or service exists. And to ensure that, you must hook the customer. Imagine the tension of the upcoming race in the first few seconds. In design language, ask yourself - What visual element stops the scroll?
Interest- Once you have their attention, you must hold them longer by generating interest in your product. At this stage, the customer wants to learn what your product has to offer. Imagine the mother taking out the phone, the Apple logo, and then action mode turning on. Ask - What design choice makes them lean in closer?
Desire - Here, you build an emotional connection with the customer and make them feel that your product will meet a specific need or solve a problem for them. In the video, desire is cultivated as the audience sees what’s possible with the iPhone: crisp, stable videos of precious family memories. The visuals show an ordinary parent achieving professional-like results, closing the gap between aspiration and possibility. Ask - What aesthetic triggers emotional connection?
Action - The final step is to get the customer to take a specific desired action. Make a purchase, or just enquire more. In the ad above, the last few seconds boldly yet indirectly place the brand promise - “Shaky camera. Stable video. Relax, it’s iPhone 14.” in a simple background, enough for the customers to have butterflies to enquire for more information. Ask - What visual cue compels the click?
Got a gist? Now, let’s understand why many designers don’t get a seat on the strategy table and how you can get one.
You are working backward.
As a designer, it is easy to get excited by aesthetic ideas, spend hours perfecting your color palette, typography, and composition. Even though you perfect them, you might hear your marketing team or client complaining that the creative is just “not converting”.
This is because you might be missing the AIDA framework in your design process. Without AIDA thinking, you're designing backward. You're starting with aesthetics and hoping they accidentally align with human psychology.
But what if you could flip that? What if every design decision served a specific stage of the customer journey?
With Apple, every frame was intentional, serving a piece of the framework.
What happens when you change your approach?
The moment you apply this discipline and start looking at your design process through the lens of AIDA, you transform yourself from someone who makes things look good to someone who makes things work.
Instead of hoping your design accidentally drives results, you become the strategic partner who can predict and optimize for specific outcomes. You stop getting vague feedback like "make it pop" and start having conversations about conversion psychology, user journey optimization, and behavioral design.
This isn't about sacrificing creativity for commerce. This is about channeling your creativity through a lens that makes it more powerful, more purposeful, and ultimately more valuable to your clients.
But wait.. Does every design need all 4 AIDA stages?
You must be thinking that whenever you pick a design, you must go through all the AIDA stages to make your design work.
Relax. Not every design needs all four stages.
Think of AIDA like a toolkit, not a mandatory checklist. Sometimes you need the whole toolkit, sometimes just one tool. Here's how it actually works in the real world:
Single-Purpose Designs:
Your Instagram story might only need to grab Attention (make them stop scrolling). That's it. Job done.
Your email subject line? Pure Interest (make them curious enough to open).
A product photo on your e-commerce site? All about Desire (make them want it).
That "Buy Now" button? 100% focused on Action (remove every barrier to clicking).
Multi-Stage Designs:
A landing page might take someone from Interest —> Desire —> Action in one flow.
Or a full-blown ad campaign like Apple’s ad covers all 4 stages
So, instead of wondering "How do I fit everything in?", start asking "What job is this design supposed to do?"
Is your design supposed to stop someone mid-scroll? Focus on Attention.
Is it supposed to make someone click "Learn More"? Optimize for Interest.
Is it the final push before purchase? Design for Action.
When you know your design's job in the customer journey, you can design with laser focus instead of trying to make one design do everything.
Your AIDA Transformation Starts Now
Now, here's where most designers get it wrong — and why you might be missing out on becoming the strategic partner your clients actually need.
If you want to master this AIDA framework, there are 3 steps-
Deep dive into the theory of each stage and understand what type of visuals influence each stage in the framework.
Learn how to communicate in the AIDA language next time when you are explaining your design to your marketing manager or client.
Apply it relentlessly — Because that's the philosophy Draftmode is built on: Theory without application is of no use.
What’s coming next?
As you learned about the AIDA framework, there must be a lot of questions popping into your head.
“I don’t really get to work on ad campaigns often. How do I apply AIDA into my day-to-day design — social media posts, for example?”,
“Is it possible that some designs cannot incorporate AIDA at all? Are there any other frameworks?”,
“How do I know if I have applied AIDA correctly in my design? Are there some measuring techniques?”,
“What are some visual elements I can use to trigger Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action?”, and finally
“How do I explain my design in AIDA terms to my client or marketing team?”
I am shortly going to conduct a podcast where I will answer all these questions for you, and will post some short challenges that will help you apply this model directly to your design. Sounds interesting, but you are still not a part of our Discord Community? Then sadly, you are gonna miss it….