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FEMALE VALUES AS INNOVATION DRIVERS FOR BETTER USER EXPERIENCES. INFINIT 19.09.2012 Lyle Clarke, Concept Manager, B&O. 1. THE INITIAL IDEA FOR B&O. Learn to bring ‘ Wife Acceptance Factor’ into products with Interaction design.
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FEMALE VALUES AS INNOVATION DRIVERS FOR BETTER USER EXPERIENCES INFINIT 19.09.2012 Lyle Clarke, Concept Manager, B&O 1
THE INITIAL IDEA FOR B&O • Learn to bring ‘WifeAcceptance Factor’ into products with Interaction design. • B&O has worked with the concept of ”WifeAcceptance Factor” for manyyears • Interaction design is an increasinglyimportant part of productofferings 2
THE BIGGER OPPORTUNITY FOR B&O • From ‘WifeAcceptance Factor’ to 'WifeAddiction Factor' • Females have more influence on spendinginside the house than men • The 'benefits' approach to value matches B&O's brand ideal • Focusing on highvalue 'benefits' is more rational thancompeting in the global race of feature list check boxes. 2
IN PRACTICE • Introduce the FemaleInteraction principles with all new team members, followed by the targetfemale persona - Aestheticallyaware, seeksidentitythroughaesthetics • Focus on HER benefits in Concept and Design phases • Deemphasising the productitself - Focus on actualbenefits to deliver and the social context of use in scenarios. • Question old-fashioned ‘male’ features - Identify and remove features onlytherebecause a ‘typical’ male userwouldexpectthem • Add features thatcomplement ‘her darlings’ - Ratherthantrying to beone of the darlings • Set the requirement of what is goodenough and whowearetrying to serve, as a young professional, aestheicallyawarefemale • Talk about the female persona using the product in her social context, with engineers, again, and again and again. 3
EXTERNAL RESULTS • Market success with females • ‘this is the firstproduct from B&O I’veeverconsideredbuying. • Significantimprovement of first time use of new productreleases • In reality, many of the peoplebuyingthese products are the same peoplewho have alwaysboughtthem... But theyaregetting a muchbetterexperiencethantheycouldbefore • Marketing and communication has becomemuch more social benefitoriented 6
IN PRACTICE • Share the research with the stakeholders, • keepbringing it up time and time again - so it becomes part of the project DNA and part of whatyou stand for. • Conceptbriefssholdexplicitly list benefits for her - technology as a tool • Design briefsshould highlights genderaspects, and includebenefits from femaleperspective as keysuccesscriteria • Explicitly go intohow the productshouldbeperceived and used by women – ratherthantalkingabout a genderless (but really, MALE, functionality) • At everyworking session, start with the benefitsfirst, especially the social / familybenefits... and thenafterwards show the concept, design or whateverconcrete problem/solution weweareworking on, on the table. 3
NOT A QUICK FIX - A CHANGE IN MENTALITY NEEDED • A lot of time and effortneeded to helppeople on the project understand whatwearetrying to help the femalecustomerachieve. • Oncesomething has been done, it is tough to ask for it to beredone but in a new and unfamiliarway. • The more peopleinvolved on the project the harder it becomes to keep the femaleinteractionfocus • The more systems, bothinfrastructure and human learnt processes thataresupporting the previous designs, the bigger the challenge • If you do not communicatewellenoughpeoplewilltry to ‘fix’ the parts of the projectthataredifferent from normal, speedilyundoing the work done previously. 3
SIGNS THAT A MENTALITY CHANGE IS SPROUTING • New concepts have benefits to women as key features. • The femalepersonasarewidelyusedwhendiscussing solutions • Words like ‘Darlings’ entering the internallanguage • Some new userinteraction research and conceptsincludegender (and age) perspectives. • In some teams it is acceptable to teasecolleagues for ‘forgetting the females’ 5
NUTURING THE MENTAL CHANGE • Firstly, the thoroughness of the research and data behind it is crucial to gettingbuy in internally with keystakeholders. • Stayahead, invest in femaleinteractionunderstanding BEFORE the ‘default-male’ auto-pilot starts • Pay attention to the balance of the discussion and intervene with reminders to consider the femaletargetpersonas. • Femaleinteractionexpert DICTATORS areneeded. • Democracy in consumerelectronics design does not favourfemales. 11