[Sigia-l] Is pricing design?

[Will Parker]

On Jun 27, 2007, at 12:11 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:

> For nearly two miles till they took a different route than mine (hey,
> they were in their twenties and I had to keep up with their pace;  
> stuff I do
> for design :-) they kept talking about the just-announced AT&T/iPhone
> pricing.
>
> They ran various scenarios of unit sales, demographic segmentation,  
> upgrade
> paths, etc and how each pricing point would have consequences for  
> 'user
> experience,' their description and used many times.

<SNIP>

> Marketplace positioning of a product and shaping of
> potential mindshare are very much part of strategic design. And price
> obviously is one of the primary parameters that anticipate user  
> acceptance >
> user experience > product definition, etc.
>
> So is pricing part of design? Should it be? Is it better left to  
> business?

Costs first.

Pricing arises in part from anticipated development cost, and margin  
of profit (in a rational world) should always be set with an eye to  
paying for after-sales support. That's at least two reasons for UxD  
practitioners to think about the developmental and customer-facing  
costs of their designs, including the cost of associated after-sale  
services. There are more, but I'm feeling lazy.

So yes, UX should certainly be thinking about how _the costs_ of  
their design are going to impact the user, at least in terms of their  
company's ability to deliver a quality product. The _price_ charged  
the user, however, is a darker matter.

I tend to look at this from the development end. What bundle of  
features (including services) is going to present the optimal user  
experience for this product. Are there natural segmentation points in  
the overall UX of a range of achievable products which suggest good- 
better-best configurations?

What are the costs and desirable price points of each configuration?  
Do these look like they're publicly-acceptable prices? What's the  
expected uptake if we set the price lower by X? Do we make good- 
enough margin? If not, identify major costs, redesign and reiterate.

Of course, that's all bull, because designers are (almost) never left  
with that much power over pricing in their hands. Marketing will  
always hunt for the highest margin, even when that margin comes  
directly out of the product quality.

So as a UxD practitioner, I cannot _practically_ expect to get the  
power to set the price My Way, but I must be prepared to provide an  
alternate analysis of pricing and user experience when I see an  
iceberg coming to break up the party. Someday, when I rate an  
assistant, I might actually be able to have that sort of data in  
hand, too.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If  
that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.” -  
Steve Jobs