I had this interesting conversation with a colleague today over lunch. I had the Slow Roasted Long Farm Pork Sandwich w/ salsa verde. She had the Grilled Chicken w/ roasted vegetables & harissa yogurt. The discussion went something like this. She said that success in products is all about timing. I argued that success in products is all about enjoyable user experience. I’ll state my case here.

It wasn’t so long ago that products were essentially designed by engineers. It was a one dimensional world with little to no consideration for the humans that would use said devices. I’m not saying they didn’t do their jobs well, I’m saying that they were joyless.

The first light on the horizon arrived in the form of ergonomists. This early expeditionary group concerned themselves with the comfort of products. Then came the interaction designers who began to understand perception and cognition.

The field of interaction which began with boxes and arrows has moved into the user experience space. That is the make or break for contemporary products. A brilliant example of this is the iPod. The first generation iPod arrived in a matured MP3 player market three years after the starting gun had fired. How then was it such a blinding success? In hindsight the culprit is all too obvious - user experience.

All preceding MP3 players did the bare minimum of store and playback of digital music. The experience they provided was utilitarian at best. People put up with these devices because there was no alternative. When the iPod hit the market it didn’t provide the most space for music, but it did do one thing particularly well. It married the music library on your computer with the one on your portable device - hence itunes was born. That doesn’t go without mentioning that there were other innovations such as manageable physical size and the scroll wheel. The story is simple, give the users a positive user experience and they will be loyal.

In the web world an example I would like to draw upon is Friendster, Myspace, and Facebook. Facebook has risen to the top in recent years but it is not with shear luck but good user experience. Friendster failed because it was laggy and users hate lag. Myspace failed because it didn’t adequately prevent spam messages from bots trying to sell you porn. Facebook is as good as it gets right now. I personally believe that there is room for improvement but for now Facebook is the it social network.

I worked on advertising for the search engine ASK during my brief stint in the ad world. This is where I saw user experience for its true value. It’s no secret that ASK has declared war on Google. Though some of the most brilliant minds are employed by ASK, search simply comes down to results. When a user looks for something if they find it they become loyal. When you fail them they slowly lose loyalty until their frustration quotient tips and they go elsewhere. The battle was lost before a single penny was spent on clever advertising because Google simply found what users were looking for more consistently - it was a positive user experience.

The final example, Sony in the late 70’s found itself in the same predicament as its competitors in the Boom Box Market. The industry was flourishing and to keep the innovation train going they did what everyone else did. Sony conducted focus groups to find out what users wanted to see next. It came as no surprise, users unanimously said, “We want bigger sound and longer battery life.” All of the competitors (JVC, Sanyo, etc.) took the feedback and created bigger boom boxes. Ones with bigger speakers and larger battery capacities for longer playback. Sony decided to go a completely different route. They introduced the first Sony Walkman. I don’t need to go into how world changing this product was, you get the point. Suffice it to say that the Sony Walkman provided a superior user experience.

Remember it’s all about positive user experience. Figure out what your human demographic wants and innovate with their desires in mind. As a bonus gem I’ll also throw in, don’t take their design cues literally.

Extra Credit Video: Malcolm Gladwell Ted Tallk on the Varieties of Spaghetti Sauces