Few Principles for Innovating with Product Related Technologies
(Rate this article)
Loading ...Email It!
A couple of months back I did an entire series on Innovation of Products. This is in a similar vein; it is more of a continuation rather.
Today im going to try and look at the key principles of certain technological products relating mostly to their Use related features and attributes on an external level. So this part quite possibly does not deal with the things like Software, Branding, User Interfaces etc.
So the key things with respect to products that one needs to keep in mind are:
1) Making the product do more with less: This is key. For the consumer it means conservation of attention (and more attention on A product). This is probably one of those obvious things that come to mind when one thinks of product innovation. It essentially involves the compression of time and space. Products that are designed to break down spatial and temporal boundaries with respect to the way they function can be classified here.
Most products today are trying to make the product do with less. Classic example is the mobile phone. From a communication device one has seen it flourish into a mini computer. There is no particular time of the day or any particular place in which one uses a mobile phone. You use it anywhere and everywhere. When a product does not get slot into a ‘time category’ or there is no special occasion when one decides to use it – then I think it has succeeded in doing more with less. To give you an example, before my mobile phone could support music, I used to use my Mp3 player while driving down to work. It had a slotted time in my mind. I could use the Mp3 player only when I was driving or probably sometimes when I go for a jog. My phone however does not have such mental time slots. I use it all the time for multiple reasons. My mind is not prejudiced against its use at any point of time. That’s what I call a successful product that has made me ‘do more with less’. My laptop too, is becoming increasingly like that – but it is still slotted for particular uses in my mind. Notice how the iPod touch now is WiFi enabled and has applications such as a web browser, maps, weather et al. They have realised that they need to make the product do more than video, audio and pictures. Quite possibly we will soon see the next gen iPod with even more features. The iPhone on the other hand now wants you to ‘social network’ as well – so all clear cut example showing that one has to constantly get audiences to do more with less. Ephemeralization.
I think Facebook is also a great example of doing more with less. You can now chat, keep in touch, and with various applications, you can get the news, sms people, post your blogs as a bookmark on Facebook, share your thoughts etc. The more you give the consumer to do (more relevant things of course), the more they are likely to stick. Consumers will probably even play around with the things given to them and ‘innovate’ new uses for them. Eg. I saw this guy on Facebook who made a greeting card and posted it as a picture and tagged all his friends to wish them. That’s creative, created by consumers, and great for Facebook because it gives the network one more use.
While we are mentioning Facebook it is also important to note that the best way to get a product to do more is to get more ideas for its use. Facebook did that by opening up its API’s and creating a developer forum. While this is not possible for all kinds of products, the past hints that creating a platform and then crowd sourcing is the way to go.
I’ll deal with the other key principles of developing and innovating products later. Some of the things that come to mind are: ‘No traces of use’, mobility, miniaturization, and as Live Mesh has shown – action at a distance and integration.
If you have any other things that come to mind then please do add them here and I can further include them in the series (and give you due credit :0)
How can we make WATBlog ‘do more with less’? What other things do you wish were there on this portal when you land? Maybe we too can crowd source and benefit!
Loading ...
Leave a Reply