I am a difficult consumer. Actually, I’m more just a whiny consumer. A true product of my generation, I’m much more likely to whine to my friends than I am to actually return a purchase. Why? Returning things requires effort, even if the effort is just remembering to bring the thing with me the next time I go to the store. I, along with a sizable chunk of humanity, prefer things to be effortless.
The desire to make the most basic of actions even easier has long been the inspiration for entrepreneurs to create products that appeal to us at our laziest. In “The Elements of User Experience”, Jesse Garrett explains how these products are successful or unsuccessful based on the user experience. The idea of the entrepreneur is that the experience they create with their product will surpass the one already in existence.
Possibly the most well-known infomercial product in the past few years is the Snuggie.
This commercial for the Snuggie works from the basic perspective of the user experience. At the beginning, the audience is shown (somewhat comedically) the ineffective and negative user experiences of other “products”, which in this case are jackets and blankets. To sell the product, the Snuggie is portrayed as the solution to the apparent difficulties of the other items. While the user experience of either the Snuggie, a blanket, or a jacket is not very complex, it still is necessary for entrepreneurs to consider these elements.
Online, the user interface involves different elements, but the ultimate idea is the same. Users will find difficulties that exist within the interface, and developers will create means of working around these issues. As the sophistication of the developers’ creation increases, so will the difficulties present. Interfaces that are more user-friendly will out perform other interfaces, and this increase in profits will continue to drive the user-centered market online.
Byting Insights 