Consumer Psychology under Minimalist Aesthetics: A Study of Apple’s Design Strategy and Purchasing Behavior

With the widespread application of minimalist design in technology products, the impact of visual style on consumer psychology and purchasing behavior has become increasingly prominent. As a model of minimalist design, Apple has won high brand loyalty with its restrained and unified product language. However, scholars rarely conduct a systematic and in-depth review of how minimalist design constructs the symbolic status of “high-end” and “innovation” in consumers’ minds and influences their purchase intentions. Based on a structured literature review, this paper focuses on the main line of “design style-psychological perception-behavioral intention”, integrates the core research results in the fields of minimalist design, perceived value, brand cognition, and consumer behavior, and combines industry dynamics and user survey texts for supplementary analysis. The study shows that minimalist design significantly improves consumers’ perceived product quality, but also indirectly stimulates purchasing behavior by enhancing the perception of high-end. At the same time, existing research shows that personal innovation tendency may serve as a moderating variable to further strengthen this influence path. This paper aims to construct a complete perceptual path framework to provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for subsequent empirical research and brand design practice.