Article Idea:
Why is that unusable product successful?
suggested by Terry Bleizeffer on 2007/07/03
I think it would be interesting to provide a Geoffrey Moore primer for UXers – basically an explanation of Moore’s insights on the Technology Adoption Lifecycle and how it helps to answer questions about why some unusable products succeed and why competing on features sometimes makes sense (for a short while). In my opinion, Moore’s ideas should be a staple for all UXers, because they are both well-known to the business people who often fund UX and they provide a great rationale for why UX matters.
Want to see this idea turned into a story?
5 people said yes. | 0 people said no.
Christina Wodtke
578 Reputation points
Posted 2007/07/15 @ 08:13AM with
What a great idea! Bring it on!
Terry Bleizeffer
38 Reputation points
Posted 2007/07/16 @ 06:23AM with
Thanks for the encouragement, Christina. Does this qualify as an editor contacting me? If so, I’ve written a first draft of this article and would be happy to email it to someone, somewhere. Not sure how this works.
Richard Dalton
18 Reputation points
Posted 2007/09/02 @ 19:13PM with
Please publish this i’d love to read it! (and consider submitting it for a presentation at the IA Summit in April (www.iasummit.org)
Karl Groves
23 Reputation points
Posted 2007/10/25 @ 10:40AM with
In addition, I’d like to see commentary on the ROI of doing things purposely “unusable”. For example, take the credit card swipe machines at point-of-sale in retail establishments. When a user swipes a Visa (or MC) debit card, most of these machines are programmed to ask for a PIN number first. However, there is no option presented to “Process as Credit Card”, only a numeric keypad, and “Enter” & “Cancel” buttons. The user is given the impression that their only choice is to enter their PIN or cancel the transaction and walk out of the store emptyhanded. But, if they hit “Cancel”, they can then process the transaction as a credit card. In fact, I’ve recently observed an invisible “Cancel” button, essentially locking the person into entering their PIN! Where is the ROI on this, you ask? Processing credit card transactions incurs a higher fee for the retailer than processing debit. For major retailers, purposely tricking people into entering their PIN gives them a massive ROI.
Terry Bleizeffer
38 Reputation points
Posted 2007/10/29 @ 06:57AM with
Karl – That’s a great example of how the end user is only one stakeholder in a given design.
I have had a similar experience with canceling a magazine subscription – I wrote about it on my blog:
http://uxsoapbox.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-good-design-me…