I am not a B-school grad, nor am I a
Product designer but, I am a consumer who walks an extra mile before
buying a product. This habit of mine has made me into a not so mediocre consumer (I don't want to call myself an intelligent
consumer cause the company fools you in some way or the other) . This
post is my attempt in admiring(in my view) some products/innovations
the industry has thrown to consumers.
- Leo Brunett
It was a busy evening for me, I had to
go around town insearch of a vital component for my project, I was searching all over town for this particular component. During my quest for this
component I happened to pass by an area where my friend was put up
too. We made a quick plan to meet up to discuss something for our
final year project. We decided to keep the meeting brief as my friend
had to head to swimming classes in a short while. We had some thought
provoking discussions on the nature of the project we intended to do.
Our meeting ended, both of us waiting
for my friend's cousin to arrive in a grey Honda City, to pick up my
friend and head to the swimming classes. Two headlights showed up at
a distance and my friend said, “ There he comes”. The dude got
down the car, the light in the car turned on and he closed the door
and the lights turned off!!,well they didn't turn off immediately
though, they gradually dimmed down. Damn! They were amazing to see,
the interiors of the car gradually merging with the darkness as the
lights faded out. My first reaction was, WOW!!, why couldn't the
folks at Maruti Suzuki think of this, both are Japanese, why the
difference. I was in awe of the car, not because it was the best
engineered car around me, but because it made the consumer who owned
it feel special, it made the owner feel special everytime he got down
and got off the car, that's how the consumer experience should be
according to me. Everytime we use something, it should make us feel
special, it should make the owner feel he is a class apart, it did
make the owners feel great, here are some stats to support it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_City
Sometimes you become part of some
amazing discussions that your view towards some simple things change
forever. I was lucky enough to be a part of this particular
discussion with two great engineers, the discussion was all about
consumer experience.
A sunday morning, me my bro and my
parents headed to my aunt's house, where my cousin and his wife had
just returned from a holy voyage to the divine “Maanas Sarovar”.
A topic came by where my brother and cousin had a discussion on the
functionality and the restrictions that Apple imposes on it's users.
My cousin who is a Phd and director at IBM brought up a very
interesting point when he asked my brother to get his laptop's
battery adapter. He said, “ Dude, go get my laptop charger, it's in
the room on the table”. My brother got the adaptor and handed it
over to my cousin. My cousin continued, “ See this adapter, most of
us with laptops have it. But then, this here is the adapter of a
macbook, how is this different from other adapters? We all wind up
the wire and then always wonder what we have to do the end of the
wire which has a socket, we wonder what do with it? We tuck
it in between the wire. But the blokes at Apple had a different idea, they
have given a small hook to tuck this particular socket, this is Consumer
experience!!”. I was awestruck. I really asked the questions why
didn't any other consumer electronics maker think of this. I really
didn't like Apple as a company till then, I really felt their
products were not value for money and the restrictions they
imposed on users were just meaningless. My views changed from that
day onwards, it's not just the functionality and the value for money
that a consumer should look at, but also consumer experience aspect
that one has to look into before judging a product as a whole.
When you’re a carpenter making a
beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of
plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will
ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a
beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night,
the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
— Steve Jobs
At the end of the about two incidents,
I really changed my view towards judging a product. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I'd certainly like to bring in the above mentioned
things when I venture into making a product for the consumer.
