People want to simplify their lives. Its been a consumer trend that has been going on for a while now, and its surprising to see that larger companies are attempting to take on this challenge only recently. Thank goodness– Now I will actually think like a consumer instead of a designer– I’m totally willing to spend $ to save time and make my life simpler. The less nauseating random stuff that I need to store in my head that I need to do, the more brain clock-cycles I can spend on more interesting, creative endeavors (I know, I know, I should try GTD)
I read over John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity from his blog.. and if I wasn’t a poor graduate student I might actually go out and spend the money on the book but I like that he gives us all the laws of simplicity on his website. That’s a nice touch.
Thus far, the best company who has made a conscientous effort to actually connect with the consumer on the basis of simplicity via a discussion forum (ala “crowdsourcing”) is Philips. So essentially, I guess they are eliciting ideas from users who are craving for denovations in the products they use and experience in their lifestyles every day. So, the site seems a tad underutilized. Who wants to sit here and post on this board– WIIFM? –> I think the answer in this comes down to creating user communities that are rich and add unique value to the user. The first thing that comes to mind are the numerous dealhunting sites like Slickdeals. There are forums where people post vast amounts of products that are on a crazy cheap sale (Hot deals forums). Here, users are adding value to themselves by visiting (learning about cheap stuff to buy off the internet), adding value to each other (by posting deals they can find at the local electronics boutique stores), and (if the companies who makes these devices and retailers are smart, it provides a delicious way to sample user needs, learn about user opinions (check out any of the camera threads on the dealsites and you will see people who pick apart these products even more than Amazon reviewers– and they include another important element– price. I was talking about this with someone yesterday– People want to feel like they’re getting a deal.
Anyway I’m digressing from Simplicity, but I think Philips idea, to create a forum like this is great, but will prove to be an exercise in marketing rather than garnering true consumer insights into the simplification (denovation?) of products and services.
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