Consumer experience, product judgement, well that's about it!!

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.

“We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.'”

- 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.