The Surprising Similarities Between Apple And LEGO

Two giants. Two very different industries. One shared UX language…

LEGO is the Apple of toys. Can I say that? I think I can. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. It’s considered a premium toy, just like Apple’s devices are considered to be premium tech. You never really think of these two behemoths having anything in common until you take a step back and analyse what makes some companies the pop culture icons they are today. You’d think that computers, phones, and watches have nothing to do with plastic bricks. If anything, Apple seems to almost have an aversion to plastic these days, so I don’t blame you for finding it hard to see what to me are obvious similarities, heck, staple ingredients of a successful and memorable brand.

It just works

I’ve been a LEGO fan for much longer than an Apple-head. Roughly 29 years of bricks in my life, but just about 10 of Apple devices. Regardless, if Apple had one selling-point that I always found unable to argue with, was the fact that “it just works”. Exceptions apply of course, as with anything in life, but for the overwhelming majority of those 10 years, my Apple devices served me well, and continue to do so.

LEGO came up with a seemingly bulletproof recipe to keeping people of all ages happy. Create some interlocking blocks of plastic, and do it in a way that almost everything interlocks with everything else. If you ask me, it’s one of the most beautiful design system out there. Many web and app designers could learn a thing or two from LEGO. Be that classic building style, SNOT (studs not on top) or whatever crazy new method LEGO’s designers and fans come up with, it just works, and it works so well, that no matter how many companies shamelessly copy the “recipe”, LEGO to this day seems to draw more crowds than most other toymakers out there.

Delight and inspire

And there is a reason for the crowds. The queues at the LEGO store opening in Dublin were longer than I’ve seen queues at many Apple stores. Apple’s marketing is well-known to be a lot less about tech specs and nerdy details than it is about what you can do with all that. And even when it does narrow the focus down to the cold numbers, they’re presented in a way that gives many Apple fans a warm, fuzzy feeling. Call them sheeples if you like, it doesn’t take away from the fact that people want Apple’s devices because they look good, because ownership makes them feel just a little bit special and makes their creative juices flow.

Call it bullshit all you want, but creating a physical device that excites, a user experience that consistently delights and a software ecosystem that inspires professionals to create things they never did before is a monumental achievement.

Interestingly enough, LEGO does exactly the same. I wish you could have seen the excitement in the eyes of every single person in those LEGO store queues. No matter the age, everyone was standing with twinkles in their eyes as if they were about to meet their favourite star for dinner. Checking online to see what many LEGO fans create out of relatively simple bricks is an experience you can’t get enough of. Hell, LEGO themselves realised this when they launched their Ideas line where actual fans contribute to new sets. With LEGO, what’s a digital world in Apple’s case, it becomes physical. Imagination and creativity have no bounds. People enjoy building LEGO sets, they enjoy building random things they cooked up in their brains, and it’s an experience no LEGO fan wants to give up.

A lasting positive impression

And speaking of that experience, it’s a long lasting-one. For many people, it’s all they know, it’s a core part of their everyday life. There are only two kinds of people when it comes to a first impressions using an Apple device. There are the ones who decide for whatever reason that they hate Apple, and no matter the device, they’ll just refuse to adopt any tech coming from the tech giant. The other group tends to fall in love with it to some extent or another. The first impression was good enough to make it a long-lasting one. Sure, there are a few who get lost along the way, but for everyone who leaves the Apple ecosystem, there are at least another two or three to join it.

The very same applies to LEGO. Most people who pick LEGO up for the first time, stick with it forever and even if they don’t become hard-core fans, they will regard LEGO as the de-facto toy bricks company and should they ever pick up a set years later for themselves or someone else, there is a big chance it’s going to have the LEGO branding on the box. And why wouldn’t they?

I have yet to meet a person who has a bad experience with their first-ever LEGO set.

It’s a rare occurrence. This is how humans work. Once we had a positive experience with something, we tend to stick to it. Don’t believe me? How do you think most marriages happen in the Western world? That’s precisely the reason dates become engagements, engagements become marriages and 50% fail because either one or both parties stop offering a long-lasting positive impression!

Retail experience

Anyone who has been to an Apple Store knows this. It’s about a lot more than just shopping. It’s meant to be an experience. Heck, I know people who walk in just to kill some time, then end up walking out a grand poorer than when they went in! Why do you think that is? Is it because walking into the shop, they suddenly realised they needed something? Feck no! It’s the experience. It’s all in the experience. Apple knows that playing around with their devices in a welcoming, open space, creates certain pathways in our brains. Looking at an iPad in the box is not an experience, but having one in your hands, working, letting you explore everything it’s capable of, is. And that experience is something people want to take home.

LEGO shops do the same, and they’re clever to do so. While looking at sets in a box is certainly more inspiring than looking at MacBook boxes, building your own mini-figure with accessories, buying some bricks by the cup, building random stuff right then and there in the store, having nobody to hurry you out or look at you suspiciously is an experience you’ll likely want to take home. I mean, even if it’s a $9.99 set, it’s still a set you take home and get to feed the little monster inside you. LEGO knows that just like with Apple, once you experience the product and what you can do with it, you’ll be a lot less inclined to leave empty-handed. Some might call it dirty consumerist trickery, I think it’s confidence in their own products, and I like that.

A cult-like following

The perfect note to end this short analysis on. Yes. Everyone knows Apple, and since its early days, the two Steves managed to create an aura of uniqueness around the brand. It was enough to get people excited to borderline religious levels. Steve Jobs was certainly venerated to Michael Jackson levels by some, but the brand itself, Apple, over the years garnered a very strong cult-like following. And you know it’s real when certain fans refuse to date “Android folks” or when the queue wraps around the street on new iPhone launch dates. You know it’s real when even the critics get excited about Apple events because they know they’ll finally have something new to trash and dissect in the media.

LEGO is no different. While their fans are perhaps a little less aggressive and the critics dare not trash new LEGO sets — it’s hard to live down calling a toy shite — the cult-like following is still very real. There are more LEGO conferences and meet-ups across the world than I can count. Fans find the most exotic excuses to meet, show their builds off and talk about one thing and one thing alone — LEGO. Many of these are very elaborate events. There are even LEGO robotics championships, believe it or not! The number of third-party websites that are LEGO related are endless. There are dedicated aftermarket sites, MOC sites and everything else you can think of. The Danish toymaker managed to create more long-lasting buzz and a loyal group of fans around a toy than most other companies around literally anything else.

You gotta ask yourself, if the recipe for success is so obvious, why aren’t other brands following it?

Hi there! 👋

Recently, I started a new publication — Bricks n’ Brackets — dedicated to LEGO, tech and coding. It would mean a huge deal to me if you’d follow it, though only do so, if any of those topics pique your interest. You can also read more about why I started it and what my overall goal with it is. You can also join as a writer if you’d like, as long as you submit articles around those three topics. The publication also has a YouTube, Instagram and TikTok channel. Thank you, and may the gods of creativity and success guide your day!

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility!