Product Behavior

No, this phone is not really red, and yes, the quotes are superfluous. But, in this case, it’s all fine. It’s not a red phone but it is a “RED PHONE.”

A few years ago, I went out into the world to ask people about the stuff in their kitchens. At one point, sorting through a drawer of silverware, one interviewee came out with two soup spoons, with blue-and-yellow-polka-dotted handles. “I love these spoons. I got them in France and I love them.” Then she moved on to something else.

When we buy something, what are we buying? Are we having an experience? Acquiring someone else’s experience?

I bought a digital SLR about a year ago, and I love it. My previous SLR was an early 80′s Nikon, so buying the DSLR meant getting not only the ability to take several hundred pictures without needing to change the film, but auto-focus and stuff like that. I already have a pocket-sized digital camera for everyday snapshots, but I use the SLR for “real” pictures – portraits of kids, arty expression, etc. It’s great. But something happened when cameras when digital: they became computers. My camera is a low-end model, and although I love it, I’m feeling a little jealous that it was superseded this week by a new model.

I had dinner the other night with a friend who is in charge of prepared foods for a local supermarket. He’s a professional chef and worked for years in restaurants, and I asked him if doing prepared foods was much different. He made an interesting comment that got me thinking about products and how we present them vs. how people use them.

Steinway pianos are still made completely by hand. The result is less product than living object that speaks directly to the artists that plays it. What can we take from that relationship as we design less specialized products and services?