How does my UX make you feel?
It’s no question that most of us creative people heavily rely on our emotions to direct our work. I honestly don’t see anything wrong with this, for it makes the world a much more beautiful and interesting place to live. But unfortunately, to survive in this world we have to synthesize these emotions to create value for other humans in the actual 3D physical world.
In theory, if you put out a quality product that meets the needs of a user, it should produce results right? But the emotions of the end user play a much more of an important part than many people realize. Would an iPhone be as successful of a product if there was no marketing, slick packaging, or an inviting interface? What about Nike? If you take away the design and branding from these products, Nike shoes are no different than any other shoe out there. Apple devices do the same thing as Android or Microsoft devices. These companies relied heavily on strategies to appeal to the customer’s emotions, whether it be through user research and applying this research into the experience of their products or in the marketing of their brand — the whole vibe they give off is what attracts their customers.
Apple somehow found the super sweet spot with the iPod. The iPod was released at a time where there wasn’t a good mp3 player on the market. CD’s were being phased out because they were clunky and hard to keep track of. Music was going digital but people were still using their discs for the time being. I remember my friends giving me discs of mp3’s they downloaded off of the internet from LimeWire or Napster. It was time consuming to find the right song with the right quality and then to organize the files to burn a CD. The artists were getting ripped off left and right. Although at the time, the music industry was in quite a mess, it was an early sign that music via the web was on an inevitable trajectory.
Apple was able to step in, seize the opportunity, and come up with a solution. The iPod was beautifully designed. iTunes offered artists money for downloads of their songs and the fee for the listener was nominal. It was also great because the listener was now able to pick and choose what songs they wanted to purchase from any artist instead of having to purchase a whole album like they did with tapes and CDs. They were now able to make their ‘mix tapes’ on the fly. This invention changed the way we sell and consume music, and it’s still evolving. Now we have music available to us anywhere and everywhere and we don’t have to dig into the seat cushions in the backseat of the car to find a scratched disc that may or may not play.
With the advent of the iPod coupled with iTunes, we now had a centralized store to get any song we wanted, and a quality device that did its job. The name was clever: the iPod. It was extremely portable and even looked cool. Slick, and inconspicuous, it had a user interface that was simple and easy to use. It utilized a digital screen, along with the navigation wheel, which was a pretty big deal for its time. The product was the epitome of high technology.
Why didn’t Microsoft’s Zune do as well with all the same features? Some might even argue that the product itself was higher quality.
Microsoft as a brand didn’t really come off as ‘cool’ nor were they able to build a following around their portable devices. Maybe they couldn’t shake the damage done by Clippy the Office Assistant. Or perhaps their software reminded users of work or school — boring spreadsheets and word processing, and don’t get me started on Internet Explorer. For whatever reason, Microsoft devices faired poorly amongst their competitors and still do to this day.
Though it could be argued that the interface and experience on the Zune was slicker, simpler, sophisticated, and more usable. For some reason, Apple had that certain rock-star formula for the vision of their whole suite of products that people gravitated towards. It’s unquantifiable.
The fact that Apple or Nike have somewhat of a cult following is all the evidence that is needed to prove that both companies are a force in design — in the wholistic view of their products, marketing, business strategy, and user experience. This in-turn leads to the generation of the brands’ monetary value. If you can attract the masses and keep them coming back with that emotional connection, you’re onto the next level of product design.
The next time you’re in that development meeting coming up with concepts for that next product, look at the big picture — product, strategy, branding and marketing and ask yourself: How might this make your user feel?
