Consumer-friendly designs in a competitive market

The main hurdle that makes it difficult to put user-centered design into practice is that engineers who are the developers of a product, tend to believe that they are typical consumers and use their own acceptance criteria to design for consumers. This phenomenon of engineers designing for engineers is very dangerous as it not only generates a difficult to use design but gives a false sense of security about consumers8217; acceptance of the product.

In reality, engineers are the most atypical consumers conceivable for consumer products as they tend to be analytical, logical and organised in their thinking and forgiving of machine like conduct that is unfamiliar territory for most humans. Typical consumers on the other hand are comparatively more disorganised, random in their approach and intolerant of product behaviour contrary to their expectations.

Human Factors Design is a highly specialised and as yet lesser known branch that deals with this particular and extremely important aspect of designing products keeping in mind the consumers and their typical mindset when it comes to utilizing a particular product.

In today8217;s market, flooded with consumer products, where the range available to the consumer for any product she would like to procure is mind-boggling, ultimately what is going to tilt the balance in favour of a particular brand of make is the product8217;s consumer friendliness. Take televisions for instance. A 300 channel situation is not too distant, but right now with just 30 channels consumers are finding it difficult to manage their TV watching time amidst conflicting preferences. And of course the well known problem that exists, of deciphering the technical jargon consumers are confronted with when it comes to taping some programme or even while switching over from television to video viewing. This has made the consumer more discerning and perceptive while opting for a certain make.

A simple example could further illustrate design for the user8217;. The buttons in a lift may either accomplish the goal of allowing the user to go up or down quickly or may conversely confuse the user into pressing the open door8217; button when he really intended to press the close door8217; button. Even if one take something as innocuous and seemingly untechnical as a peeler you find that a majority of them do not give a good grip or are not of the right size or do not facilitate even that simple peeling motion. So it8217;s not just the very advanced or latest systems that need user centered-designing but every possible product that is designed, manufactured and intended for use by consumers.

All this actually tapers down to the user interface8217; which can be defined as that intangible layer between the user and the product that enables the user to easily interact with an accomplish the tasks for which they are using the product. User centered design is accomplished by applying perceptive thinking, accepting the fact that the product must suit the customer who pays for it ad for whom it is intended, failing which it does not fulfill its purpose. And this is only possible by adopting this philosophy right from the initial stages of design followed by progressive refinement of the design based on feedback from users to ultimately come up with the final usable product. This has been widely accepted as the only known means to guarantee long term customer satisfaction after the initial euphoria with their purchase.

The benefits of adopting the user-centered design approach are twofold in that it facilitates maximum usage by the customer providing him with real value for money on one hand and saves the manufacturers much in terms of post launch costs like maintenance of a customer service staff, product returns or exchanges and what is perhaps most costly, the loss of faith by the consumer in that brand, resulting in a loss of reputation for the company.

While user centered designing is now being accepted as an integral and important aspect of production in the West, the concept is yet to take root in India. But with increasing globalisation and the surfeit of consumer products that the Indian market has of late been witness to, it is perhaps simply a matter of time before industries incorporate the use friendly approach in their product creation process to get that essential edge over their competitors. Pune being at the forefront of the country8217;s industry and marketwise progress, providing a home to some of the leading-edge technologies of India, it is expected and hoped that user-centered design will gradually become an inherent part of this progressive march by Pune industries 8211; an inevitable wave of a not-too-distant future, in a market where the consumer is the undeniable king.