User satisfaction as a priority
Good design is much more than the combination of functionality and aesthetics.
A solution that is both functional and aesthetic is typically not yet a good solution, especially if it is not designed to seamlessly support the natural process flow of a user. It is very different to design a pair of smart glasses as a cool gadget or a pair of smart glasses for a worker who runs an eight-hour shift with it on a daily basis. Or take a bike: a bike does not become a good bike by adding functionality to a slick design, but a good bike is like an extension of the human body. Like a machine that converts the natural human rhythm into kilometer after kilometer, like it was an organic part of the cyclist.
User satisfaction as a priority
To be clear, functionality is very important, and a good designer should be absolutely obsessed about optimizing it. However, products do not just have to do their job. They may have to do their job – no matter what. Extreme exposure to harsh environments of dust, rain, salt, vibrations, sun or ice requires a very different design approach than a product for use in ambient climate conditions.
Whether a solution is a product or a service or a software interface – or a combination thereof – a good solution always supports the natural flow of existing processes, like they were organic parts thereof.
Naturally, aesthetics are a very important part of good solutions. Good solutions create good user experiences and therefore have to support the user’s satisfaction – also visually. Here again, a good solution is a solution that upgrades the user in his environment and that enhances a user’s experience, including his interactions with others, and the process flow he is part of.
Good solutions have to enhance the experience of a user in a given process, and the best solutions are like an organic part of an intuitive process flow of a user, like they were a natural part of life.
Car of the future reevaluated
Take another example of a design challenge that has enormous relevance for the future: the design of a self-driving car’s interior. At the moment, car manufacturers are thinking of a self-driving car as a conventional car that can also drive without requiring the permanent attention of the driver. The main job of a conventional car is to give the driver driving pleasure while offering comfort to the passengers. To date, the ability of a car to accelerate powerfully is seen as a key attribute of driving pleasure. Acceleration power is therefore also very strongly correlated with the price of a car and hence with the margin that car manufacturers generate on selling cars. One could therefore say that the factual main job-to-be-done is to give the driver the illusion of controlled superpowers, to enable him/her to move fast and forcefully over longer distances.
If you think of an advanced, truly autonomous, self-driving car as a living space during which you spend the time needed to get from point A to point B, acceleration power is a factor that is rather not wished. Instead, a self-driven car should enable you to do all kinds of things, except enjoying the activity of driving itself, as you are not the driver anymore. The jobs-to-be-done of a self-driving car are substantially different from a conventional car: they include the prevention of car sickness, the enablement of work, entertainment, relaxation, and video communication – just to name a few. Perhaps you want to be able to stand, walk, enjoy a hot meal, or exercise. You certainly want to be able to sit, lie, and sleep. You want to give your car simple instructions such as: “Leave the highway for the next restaurant”, or: “Wake me up 10 minutes before arrival.”
User needs determine design solutions
It is crucial for a designer to totally re-think the design requirements around a very new future user experience. It is not unreasonable to expect that newcomers to the car industry could shake it up like the iPhone shook up the traditional mobile phone industry. The key reason is simply that relevant new functionalities could be so numerous that the classic core competency of car manufacturers of enabling comfortable or dynamic driving will only play a minor role in future mobility. The enablement of actually spending quality-time in a car by doing all sorts of things will be the main value driver of the car industry of the future. This will be made possible by a substantial increase in a car’s functionality, i.e. the jobs-to-be-done of a car that is self-driven versus driver-driven will increase significantly, and the enhanced functionality will be a major differentiator for car manufacturers.
Designers should always be ready for deeply transformational design solutions that reach far beyond incremental product renewals.
Needless to say, but the client reality is often different and by far less transformational, as certain best practices, brand identities, and sticky user habits suggest that gradual product evolutions are businesswise less risky than rapid revolutions. However, the expected rise of the autonomous car industry is an example of dramatic shifts in user experience, and hence the car industry is very likely to face unconventional competition from newcomers – implying that larger design steps are needed to accommodate the new needs of the user.
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