Technology > features > experience 24 Apr 2007

Adaptive Path on the natural linear progression that exists in product design:

"So, for example, in 1976 or so, the first VCRs for home use came on the scene, and that was simply a function of a new technology. The technology allowed you to do something you couldn't do before, and that was enogh. It didn't matter that the first VCRs were bulky, unattractive, and clunky to use - they allowed you to record television shows to be played back at your leisure, and that new capability was enough to make it exciting.

"Then, in the 80s and into the 90s, VCRs entered into this features craze. In this middle tier, it's typical for companies to compete on features, angling to get more bullet points on their product boxes in some demonstration of superiority. Such an approach lead to almost universal frustration with VCRs, and the blinking '12:00' the icon of unusable home technology.

"In this decade, we've entered the world of digital video recorders. And, largely thanks to Tivo, we've had a shift towards an experiential design. The Tivo's designers could have simply taken their technological offering and housed it in the old trappings, offering an incremental improvement to the VCR experience. Instead, they realized that they could fundamentally reshape people's relationship with television, and this experiential approach has given them amazing traction in the marketplace."

As this example demonstrates, as a market matures you can no longer compete or differentiate through technology or features. Instead, you need to focus on user experience.