It’s sheer co-incidence that the India operations of EchoUser have started at the same time as the launch of this blog. It’s a great medium for me to share some of my thoughts with you as we ramp up here.
I spent the last 2 years heading Motorola’s India design group and that has given me some interesting insights into the various aspects of design and this industry in India. There is a lot to share and I will over time. However, today I am going to write a little bit about the most commonly used but the most misunderstood term in this industry; Usability and give some thoughts on using an experience planning approach to drive and better co-ordinate product and brand innovation.
Usability has become an extremely overused and a loosely defined word. Almost all firms that have anything to do with the web or even interactive media now flaunt usability as a service. It shows the potential demand of this technique but one needs to be careful when utilizing such services. Usability is nothing but evaluating the quality of the product and in turn using that user feedback to improve it.
The way it is done is what matters. A user is going to be less satisfied if an easy task turns out to be difficult compared to a difficult task that turns out as expected. Typical usability studies would show both such tasks to be difficult. It is important to avoid such misinterpretations. Usability Magnitude Estimate and metrics that bring out perceived values are some proven techniques that provide a robust statistically valid result that translates into easy to understand design recommendations.
Usability is the means of achieving the end goal; a great highly desirable product. Even before products reach the stage where usability testing provides benefit, a lot can go wrong in the defining stage or what is called as the front end process. Experience planning is a design driven front end process which helps create a story giving birth to the product, the brand and the communication to the end user. The biggest benefit here is that designers and marketers work together where the designer eventually creates the product and the marketer the brand proposition. One without the other is bound to result in a failed product.
As an example let’s take a look at the telecom industry in India. Despite the recession, the telecom sector in India is still booming and that has forced the players to be on the cutting edge of innovation (both from a product and branding perspective). From mobile phones manufacturers to service providers to VAS providers, all players have been consistently churning out quality products and services. There is the classic case of marketing defining the products or vice-versa. Idea Cellular has managed to get great mindshare with their Abhishek Bachchan campaign but is not able to follow up with products. Vodafone on the other end created a wide variety of value added services (VAS) and topped that with the revolutionary ZooZoo campaign.
I have seen similar stories happen over the years where marketing defines the direction but that does not mean that products follow and they remain out of synch. This kills the goodwill or mindshare that has been generated and eventually leads to a failed product. What is needed is a design based approach where an experience driven strategy not only helps define the products early in the process but also acts as the feeder into the marketing groups to help them create the appropriate campaigns. In my subsequent entries I will elaborate more on the ‘Experience Planning’ process that can be employed to drive innovation, help create new products and also synchronize marketing efforts.
It is a very exciting time for me to be part of this new venture and help utilize my experience in design to provide unique tailored solutions to the software, telecom and various other industries. More later…
