Peter Merholzpeterme@adaptivepath.com

Stop Designing Products

Meet Adaptive Path (this is the introduction page)

I want to begin with a story, drawn from recent work experience. 

My colleague Brandon and I were on a project with a major financial services firm. Adaptive Path had been hired to redesign the website customers use to manage their accounts, and engage in such activities as track transactions, move money, buy and sell stocks and mutual funds. We conducted in-home user research to understand how people approach financial planning and management. And when we talked to these people, they showed us all kinds of things. 

Among the things we learned is that people use a wide range of tools. There are monthly account statements they get in the mail; the website; personal spreadsheets, financial workbooks, MSDOS computers for special tasks; and more.

Statement Website Call Center

Branch PlanningGuide

We presented this simple drawing to demonstrate the variety of touchpoints people use, and which ones posed significant problems.  

We realized that improving the website, while important, was insufficient. No matter how good the website design, its ability to satisfy both the customers and our client is constrained by the problems people have with these other tools.

And we’re seeing this trend across all of our projects. Focusing on just one part of the service sells the customer’s experience short.

Why do we need to do this? What is going on?

The world is changing and old approaches to design and business aren’t working as well as they used to. Many old principles still apply but in new and different ways. With the rise of globalization, the Internet, etc., people, their activities, and their objects are more interconnected than ever before. Thus, the products and services they use become more deeply embedded in the messiness inherent in people’s lives. This integration has led consumers to become more savvy and have higher expectations of the experiences they have in all their interactions with companies. Old approaches to design and business that focused on static, stand-alone products (e.g. “making one great product”) don’t work anymore. Instead we need:- To understand people as people- To embrace and embed design approaches- To create and drive toward larger business strategies- To evolve our organizations to support these approaches- To embrace flexibility, adaptation, and agile development- To contribute to and draw from the ecosystems of products and services already in use

A NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS.

This apparatus consists of a box containing a camera, A, and a frame, C, containing the desired number of plates, each held in a small frame of black Bristol board. The camera contains a mirror, M, which pivots upon an axis and is maneuvered by the extreme bottom, B. This mirror stops at an angle of 45°, and sends the image coming from the objective to the horizontal plate, D, at the upper part of the camera. The image thus reflected is righted upon this plate.

As the objective is of short focus, every object situated beyond a distance of three yards from the apparatus is in focus. In exceptional cases, where the operator might be nearer the object to be photographed, the focusing would be done by means of the rack of the objective. The latter can also slide up and down, so that the apparatus need not be inclined when buildings or high trees are being photographed. The door, E, performs the role of a shade. When the apparatus has been fixed upon its tripod and properly directed, all the operator has to do is to close the door, P, and raise the mirror, M, by turning the button, B, and then expose the plate. The sensitized plates are introduced into the apparatus through the door, I, and are always brought automatically to the focus of the objective through the pressure of the springs, R. The shutter of the frame, B, opens through a hook, H, with in the pocket, N. After exposure, each plate is lifted by means of the extractor, K, into the pocket, whence it is taken by hand and introduced through a slit, S, behind the springs, R, and the other plates that the frame contains. All these operations are performed in the interior of the pocket, N, through the impermeable, triple fabric of which no light can enter.

An automatic marker shows the number of plates exposed. When the operations are finished, the objective is put back in the interior of the camera, the doors, P and E, are closed, and the pocket is rolled up. The apparatus is thus hermetically closed, and, containing all the accessories, forms one of the most practical of systems for the itinerant photographer.

Scientific American, February 27, 1886

It was almost 120 years ago that the first sufficiently complex consumer technology was made approachable for the common user. At that time, cameras were challenging tools, requiring users to understand a complex set of technologies and concepts -- shutters, films, exposures, lenses, chemicals, etc. etc. This kept the technology in the hands of professionals or geeky hobbyists.

In 1888, George Eastman, a photographic pioneer, designed a camera that could take advantage of the roll film he invented a few years before. Called the “Kodak,” it revolutionized not just photography, but consumer technology. Because George knew that what he needed to do was design toward an experience.

In many ways, the Kodak camera was the first piece of “consumer electronics,” though, of course, it didn’t run on electricity. Unlike the 15-20 steps detailed in the previous slide, the Kodak camera could be operated in three simple steps. The complexity of the tool was hidden from the user. Eastman realized that, in order to appeal to his desired customers, the product had to be simplified, and to be made a component of a larger system that provided the development and printing services. What George hit upon, 120 years ago was...

The System is the Product

thanks Adam Richardson

The System is the Product. Not that Eastman used this phrase.

This phrase comes from a strategist at Frog Design, Adam Richardson. In a blog post discussing frustrations using a new mobile phone, he wrote, “my new mantra is “The System is the Product”. For a product to feel harmonious the user, the system that surrounds it must be harmonious. No product is outside of a system, though not all products are systems. A table is not a system, but it lives within a system of retail, advertising, brand, web, and customer service that must harmoniously come together for the customer in order for that table to be successfully sold.”

Product

Perhaps the best example we have currently for this idea is the iPod. The iPod is a product, but it succeeds only because of how it works within a system.

Browse audioPlay audioRate audio

Browse audioPlay audioRate audio

Alter metadataAdd audio

Delete audio Make playlists Stream radio

Burn CDsetc...

The iTunes software is the key to the success of the system. It allows the iPod to be a successful product, because it offloads the bulk of functionality to the PC, which is better suited to handle it.

System

Find mediaBuy mediaBuy games

Subscribe to podcasts

Browse audioPlay audioRate audio

Browse audioPlay audioRate audio

Alter metadataAdd audio

Delete audio Make playlists Stream radio

Burn CDsetc...

Play Manage Acquire

But it doesn’t stop there. Apple truly cinched the deal when it opened the iTunes Music Store. Now you could fill your iPod with all manner of media, listening or watching it wherever you wanted to. The iPod device isn’t a product in and of itself so much as it is an interface to this larger system.

In contrast with Apple’s closed experience, Flickr.com offers a remarkably open experience for people and their photos. Flickr is a very complex application -- the number of features, functions, tools, options, etc. is huge. And then there’s the APIs that allow others to extend the functionality even further. That extensibility makes Flickr less of a “product” and more of the hub of a system dedicated to people and their pictures.

BASIC QUERY

“Do you have a map of Pittsburgh?”

SUBSTANTIVE QUERY

“What’s a good source for literary criticism about Oliver Twist?”

BASIC WAYFINDING QUERY

“Where are the restrooms?”

TARGETED WAYFINDING QUERY

“Where can I find this book?”

Exploring, Shadowing, Documenting

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh | Information Environment

Another example of non-product design is the work that MAYA did for the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh. They worked on the redesign of the library, both the physical and virtual space. They conducted on-site research...

An example information blueprint (Landesberg Design)

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh | Information Environment

...which lead to things like physical information architecture...

Reference Desk = Ask a Librarian

after

Based on extensive survey, lexicon shifts to “ask a librarian”.

User-centered (not system-centered) language

Homewood branch

...which in turn inspired changes in the design of the physical space, including friendlier terminology...

Ask a Librarian

after

Consistent across “user interfaces” from website to physical site…

...that was applied across channels and media...

Design, and designers, are addressing bigger problems

So, clearly, designers are working on more complex problems. We’re being asked to go beyond styling and help organizations with their fundamental challenges.

Why is this happening? What’s going on right now?

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960

Taylorism

Organization Management

Quality Management

(Japan)

Organizational Psychology

Economic Theory

If we look back 100 years, we see the development of modern economic theory. It begins with Frederick Taylor and his time and motion studies...

Taylorism

...that lead to process reengineering. The idea of designing a system to achieve optimization and efficiency in production. You’ve probably worked on some of these types of projects...From Fredrick Taylor we move forward to...

1980 1990 20001970

Business Process

Reengineering

Total Quality Management

(U.S.)

Change Management

Activity-Based Costing

Supply Chain Management

... some of the managerial fashions of the 80s, often around some form of business process reengineering. Of particular interest was Total Quality Management...

Total Quality Management

+ Management framework and philosophy aimed at all areas of business+ Used in industry, military, government sectors+ In manufacturing, statistical analysis of random samples; isolation and correction of specific sources of failure + Ex: Assembly-line machines out of adjustment+ Productivity improvements and component redesigns to widen the statistical bands of acceptable performance + Over time, lowers cost of production+ TQM also known as "qualicide" -- companies suffocate from too much micromanagement of quality

Six Sigma

6σ

which also lead to the cult of Six Sigma.

hai-yah!

1980 1990 20001970

Business Process

Reengineering

Total Quality Management

(U.S.)

Change Management

Activity-Based Costing

Supply Chain Management

Decades of intenseimprovements in

efficiencyand productivity

The thing is, with decades of intense improvements in efficiency and productivity, businesses cannot compete on optimization any more. We’ve optimized ourselves as much as we can. So organizations are turning to designers, and their creative impulses, to help drive step changes in their business. To, well, truly innovate.

Vision 1. Fast, visually appealing, and

joyous to use 2. Drop-dead simple to get

information into the calendar

 3. More than boxes on a screen

(reminders, invitations, etc.)

 4. Easy to share so you can see

your whole life in one placeShared by Carl Sjogreen, product manager

“

”

And as designers are helping companies with their core concerns, we’re needing to develop new tools. I want to talk about just one in particular (I only have 30 minutes today). What I want to talk about was spurred by a talk I saw a couple weeks ago, at the Future of Web Apps conference.

There, Carl Sjogreen, the product manager for Google Calendar, shared the process by which his team developed the application. He’s realized that, given the complexity of software on the web, You have to have a vision, a larger idea that drives the product development, or you’ll just be executing on a feature list.

Here is the vision he developed for Calendar, which drove the design of the product.

What Carl hit on was something that I realized we also practiced at Adaptive Path. We’ve developed similar vision statements that serve two purposes:

1) It helps our client organization understand, fundamentally, what we need to achieve

and

2) It becomes a guiding document shaping the design of the system, ensuring coherence in the experience provided

For our work with a financial services firm, we ended up with something similar to what Carl did for Google ... it’s not as fleshed out in this form, but it served the same purpose. It allowed us to communicate to the client the “strategic requirements” of the system. As we designed the application, we continually returned to these four characteristics and made sure we were addressing them.

“You press the button, we do the rest”

With Kodak, that initial vision was encapsulated in the phrase “You press the button, we do the rest.” Yes, it was an advertising slogan, but it also served to capture the nature of the experience.

1. We want to help people make

their photos available to the

people who matter to them.

Maybe they want to keep a blog of moments captured on their

cameraphone, or maybe they want to show off their best pictures to

the whole world in a bid for web celebrity. Or maybe they want to

securely and privately share photos of their kids with their family

across the country. Flickr makes all these things possible and more!

To do this, we want to get photos

into and out of the system in as

many ways as we can: from the web, from

mobile devices, from the users' home computers and from whatever

software they are using to manage their photos. And we want to be

able to push them out in as many ways as possible: on the Flickr

website, in RSS feeds, by email, by posting to outside blogs or ways we

haven't thought of yet. What else are we going to use those smart

refrigerators for?

Flickr is the WD-40 that makes

it easy to get photos from one

person to another in whatever way

they want.

2. We want to enable new ways

of organizing photos.

Once you make the switch to digital, it is all too easy to get

overwhelmed with the sheer number of photos you take with that

itchy trigger finger. Albums, the principal way people go about

organizing photos today, are great -- until you get to 20 or 30 or 50 of

them. They worked in the days of getting rolls of film developed, but

the "album" metaphor is in desperate need of a Florida condo and full

retirement.

Part of the solution is to make

the process of organizing photos

collaborative. In Flickr, you can give your friends, family,

and other contacts permission to organize your photos - not just to

add comments, but also notes and tags. People like to ooh and ahh,

laugh and cry, make wisecracks when sharing photos. Why not give

them the ability to do this when they look at them over the internet?

And as all this info accretes around the photos as metadata, you can

find them so much easier later on, since all this info is also searchable.

Flickr’s open system could be simply chaotic, but because it’s driven by the philosophies shown here, all the decisions that are made end up cohering.

Ask a Librarian

after

Consistent across “user interfaces” from website to physical site…

For the Carnegie Libraries project, MAYA developed this visual model to explain the nature of the patron’s experience. This model helped drive the design decisions, keeping designers aware of the cyclical nature of the experience, the many

different channels people engage with, and the things people do throughout the cycle.

Stop designing products...start designing experiences!

This is an unfortunately glib way of ending the talk, but I had trouble of coming up with some meaningful. I wanted to leave with some kind of closing statement. Really, what I wanted to stress was the need for people to develop an experience strategy (the “vision” stuff) from which your design work flows.

Thank you!

Peter Merholzpeterme@adaptivepath.com

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http://adaptivepath.com/blog

See you at dinner tonight!(Don’t forget to register)