Experience Matters

Pragmatism and the Future of Product Design

I had busy week last week, consumed with customer research for an online commerce project. Part of the focus of the project is to find a new way to help customers research, find and select products online. It’s remarkable the lengths we need to go to help people navigate this “paradox of choice.”

So it seemed timely when I saw Adrian Ho’s recent post at Zeus Jones’ blog about his prediction of a “coming period of pragmatism.” He constructs a sobering picture that we wouldn’t expect to hear from normally optimistic marketers. Adrian suggests that a threatening recession, a generational shift and global warming are conspiring to change our attitudes towards consumption. He describes these things as “a counterweight powerful enough to balance America’s insatiable appetite.” Sounds pretty gloomy, doesn’t it?

What will this potential “age of pragmatism” have on design? It’s easy to predict disaster, but personally, I think it could be the thing that finally separates the wheat from the chaff.

When we purchase products, we simply have too many choices to make. At a very basic level, we have to scrutinize our purchases to avoid the pitfalls of poor quality or excessive cost. On a slightly higher level, we need to decide whether a given product has the right functions and features to fulfill our requirements. At the highest level, we seek qualities or characteristics in products that enhance our self-esteem and our standing among other people.

Product managers and designers have responded enthusiastically to the challenge. At no time in history have they had the range of technologies, materials and ideas from which to create new products. Nor has there been such competition. Manufacturers onshore and offshore are fighting an “at all costs battle” for the attention and the money of the purchasing public. In all the excitement, it’s pretty evident that, with a few notable exceptions, the consumers’ essential wants and needs are often forgotten.

And are we getting better products as a result? Shopuldn’t things keep getting better and better? Some slippage in the Customer Satisfaction Index hints that it might not be the case, but I admit that’s pretty poor proof. However, think about the products that you interact with everyday. Do you use all the features that are designed into them? Think about all the products that you stashed in your house or in storage. Why did you set it aside? Was it because you found something that “did the job better?”

For example, I have a Samsung cell phone that has an animation feature. Every time I turn it on, it has picture of a skateboarder leaping into the air. It really annoys me, but it was the simplest phone I could find at the time. Another example - we all groan when we hear about the percentage of features that go unused in major desktop applications.

Why do we suffer through this? I believe it’s because product managers, designers and consumers suffer from a sort of abundance mindset (not to be confused with the one that motivational speakers say will help you get rich). It’s a common belief that that’s it’s cheap to add extraneous features and functions and that these things will make a product better. It’s the mindset that put fins on Cadillacs and hundreds of buttons on our television remotes. It also makes it hard to find products that simply and elegantly meet our needs.

But if Adrian is right, this pragmatism may force a shift in the way we think about designing and consuming products. He argues that we may be forced to accept a more pragmatic (and by extension) sustainable mindset, and with that will come a radical re-appraisal of how we do our work. From broader view, some of the forces that might create this shift are very sobering, (and BTW, this is a prominent ad guy talking), but personally. I’m optimistic because I think there’s a tremendous challenge to embrace. Maybe, it has to do with what I’ve been reading lately …

As a user experience professional and a person who has worked in agencies for some years, I’ve offered wondered where sustainability fits into my work. frog and Ideo have endorsed the Designers Accord to encourage green design practices. People like John Grant formerly of St. Luke’s, have wholly embraced green marketing. For me, I think it’s about getting back to really understanding what customers need. What if we really understood what people needed? What if we, without exception, delivered products that have “just enough” features to satisfy the customers’ needs? What would happen to customer satisfaction? What would happen to operating expenses or to the amount of waste generated in the production process?

Ultimately, if Adrian’s prediction comes true, my bet would be on the value of human centered research and design skills that help make those more pragmatic and sustainable products.