I Just Love This Product! Looking into Wow Products, from Analysis to Heuristics

1. I Just Love This Product! Looking into Wow Products, from Analysis to Heuristics BerntMeerbeek Philips Research, High Tech Campus 34 Eindhoven, 5656AE, NL Elizabeth Buie LuminanzeConsulting,Silver Spring, MD, USA JettieHoonhout Philips Research, High Tech Campus 34 Eindhoven, 5656AE, NL CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '12)

2. Outline • Introduction • Multi-dimensional • Towards a set of heuristics • Workshop objectives • An example

3. Introduction(1/4) • Products need to be ‘cool’, ‘wow’, fun, rather than merely being 'functional'. • User / Product requirementsplayfulness rather than efficiency • How to apply technologies to realize some usefulproduct function, but also in how to create an appealing and alluring experience

4. Introduction(2/4) • How to evaluate the user experience of products and services, and how to involve the intended users in such studies • The wow or cool factor – the affective aspects of a product – is evaluated quite late in the development process. • At the start of a new product development process, far fewer support tools and methods are available.

5. Introduction(3/4) • The product concept should feel nice to the touch • Have a luxurious appearance • Perform tasks in an elegant and high-standard way • Exhibit behavior that is most of the time predictable, but occasionally surprising the user

6. Introduction(4/4) • The core question one is how we can make sure that the final product is going to be fun, pleasurable, appealing • Evaluation data collected in the final stages of the development of the product provides a useful check of the qualities of the product, but possibilities to repair any potential issues are usually severely limited.

7. Multi-dimensional(1/2) • Win them over to buy your products or services, a good – “cool” – user experience is key • Different departments think UX could manifest itself in a product, might differ greatly • Marketing • R&D • Design

8. Multi-dimensional(2/2) • If a product is going to have the successful UX factor – they should all contribute their part and align and work together to realize an appealing product • Users are generally not able to specify how exactly that “wow” experience should be realized • In industry and academia much tacit knowledge and experience exists to aid in a better understanding of this elusive concept.

9. Towards a set of heuristics • Heuristics could be a starting point to guide further development of such theories • For the short term such heuristics would also support the development of products in a more tangible way

10. Workshop objectives • The aim of the workshop is to derive a set of practical, concrete heuristics through analyzing and comparing examples of successful products and services • Position papers discussing in detail a wow product or service with an in-depth analysis of what makes the product or service appealing– from a design, a marketing, a technology perspective, or a combination of all those will form the starting point for the workshop session

11. An example(1/3) • The Senseo coffeemaker was introduced in 2001 by Philips Electronics and Sara Lee. • Realized that the circumstances in which people are enjoying their coffee are changing • Consumers are looking out for new coffee blends, desiring different tastes for different moments during the day

12. An example(2/3)

13. An example(3/3) • The Senseo is not a regular coffee maker, but a special appliance, personalizable, and with a novel design and variation in its appearance. • It provides your own coffee, just the way you like it, with little effort • This brief breakdown already contains a starting point for further analysis and comparison that could lead to heuristics for product development in other cases.