Integrated device,
desktop software,
and Web-based services
iPod
Typical Competitor
Most competitors still face a significant gap not only in UI, but also in integrated services
Best
Quality
World Class
Manufacturing Quality
Product Design
National Class
Interaction Design
Q
a
n
u
a
c
u
n
g
u
a
y
r
f
t
l
i
t
i
M
Product Design
Service Design
Interaction Design
Service Design
Average
1985
1995
2003
Time (Investment)
2005
Today
2015
To understand the success of iPod, compare all four measures of design quality, not just product-design quality. Apple and its competitors are roughly even on manufacturing quality and product design, but Apple has a considerable lead in both interaction design and service design.
to attract business. Like manufacturing quality, product-design quality has become a necessary part of competing at a world-class level, but great product design is not sufficient. Competition has again moved on—to interaction design and beyond.
William Gibson said, “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet [ 2].” The same is true for interaction design. Some firms, such as Apple and Starbucks, “get” interaction design in a deep way. Other firms are just waking up to it. The discipline is less than 25 years old and far from mature.
Interaction design has emerged as a new field of competition, a way for organizations to differentiate their products. Today this competition has become intense in the mobile phone market. Motorola’s troubles and Nokia’s long-term success are due, at least in part, to the quality of their products’ interaction design. Motorola’s Razr was a hit largely because of its slim metal profile— because of its product design—but the Razr interface was often described as difficult (or worse). Last summer Apple’s iPhone set a new standard for mobile devices, largely on the strength of its interaction design. Of course the iPhone’s product design is good, as is its packaging design and advertising design. And the manufacturing quality appears to be good too. But its interaction
design sets the iPhone apart.
Google has entered Android, a new mobile platform, into the competition. By the time this article is printed, devices running Android will be available, and its effect on interaction design—and on competition for developing new mobile products— should be discernable.
While competition increases in the field of interaction design, a new domain is already emerging: service design—the integration of hardware, software, and networks to deliver services.
Apple is becoming a leader in service design, shifting the field of competition and creating a new system of differentiation before rivals have even noticed. Other consumer-electronics firms envy Apple’s success with iPod, almost to the point of obsession. Differentiating an MP3 player on the basis of manufacturing quality is almost impossible, but many companies have worked hard to improve the quality of product design for their MP3 players.
The New York Times reported that Samsung has hired one of the original members of the iPod interface team, Paul Mercer, to work on the interface of one of its MP3 players, the Z5. David Pogue wrote in the Times, “The result is the easiest-to-navigate software since the iPod [ 3].” He adds, “Samsung has even improved on the iPod’s design
[ 2] William Gibson, interview by Brooke Gladstone, Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, 30 November 1999.
[ 3] David Pogue,
“Almost iPod, But in
the End a Samsung,”
Ne w York Times,
9 March 2006.
References:
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