Sunday, April 27, 2008
On his good experience blog Mark Hurst reflects on a good read in the New York Times about mobile phone development and design becoming more user-centered (partly as a result of the advent of the iPhone).
Sounds to me as if someone is taking the Dr.Phil approach to user-centered product design. It's not magic, it's not emotions, it's still just about finding out how to improve the product. So a customer let's you know what mood he is in, and then what? What you really want to know is how you pissed them off, and how you can change your design to improve that. But I can imagine that LG wants to prevent another NYT headline like LG Chocolate can be a sticky mess. When it comes to being a fashion statement instead of usable, the LG Cholocate indeed came very close to the Razr.
[via UnpressableButtons]
On his good experience blog Mark Hurst reflects on a good read in the New York Times about mobile phone development and design becoming more user-centered (partly as a result of the advent of the iPhone).
“Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president for product strategy and marketing. “We constantly have to be reminding ourselves that we tend to be geek types and our customers are not.”At least that's one more person that has seen the designer-user gap. As a contrast to the iPhone Hurst mentions the Motorola Razr, that was hugely popular for a while and then seemed to vanish of the face of the earth. According to Hurst the Razr that was a fashion statement, and not a usable device. And, as he points out:
Fashion is a difficult, volatile business to be in. In contrast, a great user experience is a competitive advantage, and in the tech industry that means creating tools that people can delight in using, not just flashing like a piece of jewelry.The NY times piece mentions that at LG participants with test-phones can call a toll-free number anytime to "share their emotions about the phone they are testing. And sometimes they are asked to draw pictures that represent their mood when they hold the phone."
Sounds to me as if someone is taking the Dr.Phil approach to user-centered product design. It's not magic, it's not emotions, it's still just about finding out how to improve the product. So a customer let's you know what mood he is in, and then what? What you really want to know is how you pissed them off, and how you can change your design to improve that. But I can imagine that LG wants to prevent another NYT headline like LG Chocolate can be a sticky mess. When it comes to being a fashion statement instead of usable, the LG Cholocate indeed came very close to the Razr.
[via UnpressableButtons]
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2 reactions:
That's funny, I actually quite like my RAZR. Because it's the only cheap phone on the market that gets decent reception with a decent speaker and a decent microphone. If you want to talk about usability, first you have to have a product that actually works. Last I checked, every one of the lower-end phones got horrendous reviews except the RAZR. Number one complaint? Not the software. Call clarity, all the way.
Hi Christine, I agree with you completely: functionality is the first product requirement there is. A product needs to do well what it was meant to do. So any phone should give you decent reception, a decent speaker and a decent microphone. That's the basics. But I don't think that the RAZR was a basic, low-end phone when it hit the market. It might be know, and as such present a good deal. However, that doesn't mean it should not have a straightforward UI.
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