by Adam Greenfield

We live, it seems, in an age in which the long-standing and pleasingly crisp distinctions between what constitutes a “product” and what a “service” are beginning to break down. Even in the early days of this evolutionary shift, we can already see that the implications for both individual designers and the profession of design as a whole are likely to be deep and lasting.

Traditionally, a product was physical and discrete - something obviously demarcated in space but, equally, in time. The designer’s brief rarely extended to much more than the form of an object, at most encompassing the contours of its use immediately after purchase, and that extending only to a narrow range of scenarios and anticipated users. But driven by lightweight and ubiquitous networking, and the open standards it gives rise to, all of this has started to change: no longer can the designer of any product assume that it will stand on its own, autonomous and serenely uninvolved with the wider world, for its entire lifetime of use.

The already-classic example is, of course, the product-service ecology Apple devised for their iPod. Considering the close integration between iPod, the physical device, iTunes, the desktop application, and iTunes Music Store, the online environment, it’s clear that Apple understood relatively early on that the only way their contender would be likely to gain traction in an already crowded field of MP3 players was not to frame it as an MP3 player at all.

In the long run, providing for high-quality experiences in a deeply networked age means having the humility to know when our efforts are most welcome… and when, as designers, we must let go.

Visit Click to Open Web Page to read more.

ADAM GREENFIELD
Writer
User Experience Consultant & Instructor
New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program

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