[Sigia-l] Does interface design matter?

[Skot Nelson]

On Oct-7-2005, at 1:04 PM, Trenouth, John wrote:

> Listera said,
>>> Perhaps a product's success is due more to marketing and promotion
>>> than to design and quality.
>
>> I know this'll sound like a broken record, but product Design (w/ a
>> capital D) must necessarily address product positioning before
>> anything.

Right. Except at 3M, where post-it notes were invented as bookmarks.  
I could find about a million examples like this.

Of course, that's probably more of a "product invention". I think  
most products are invented first ("Hey - I can cut my hair with a  
vacuum cleaner") and then designed second ("Flowbee - use the  
attachments to 'style' your hair.")

Anyway, I think the first point is as wrong as the second, and the  
reality is here:

> I had a professor who used to say that "great products can sit on the
> shelf as well as lousy ones."  His point being that it takes more  
> than a
> well made product to achieve market success.

It's a mix of factors - some succeed because of brilliant design,  
some succeed because of brilliant marketing...some from a combination.

This isn't physics - our systems are not perfect, and we cannot  
eliminate all the variables which are "unknowns." I think those who  
stop trying are going to be much more successful at Moving Things  
Forward by UNDERSTANDING where we've been rather than arguing about  
where we are.
--
Skot Nelson
skot at penguinstorm.com

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