Designed for the Rest of Us

Nice validation from McKinsey of the attractiveness of easy-to-use products. Their report ‘Consumer electronics gets back to basics‘, based on in depth interviews of 2,500 consumers, found consumers are looking for well conceived products, designed to be simpler, at a discount of 30% below the full featured product. This is because consumers do not value, and are frustrated by, products with complex features that they don’t use. A great argument to support
my view that products need to be easy-to-use and meet the needs of users. Three take aways:

1. Consumers are overserved. Less than 1/3 of respondents used advanced features in products. This is the classic case of an opportunity to be disruptive – price lower but with the features users really need.
2. People value lifestyle benefits over technical capabilities. They want to capture memories and share them, not shoot HD video.
3. New web social networking tools make it easy for consumers to share their experiences with products. Guess what they talk about – how the product is easy-to-use and provides value for their money.

Here are two products that in the last couple of years have captured huge shareholder value by providing what a segment of users really need. The Flip video camera and the Acer Netbook. Both are products stripped of advanced features and priced at a discount compared to a regular video camera or notebook computer. They are selling like hot cakes because they provide the features consumers really want and are willing to pay for.

The Flip video camera - let's you capture memories

The small Acer Netbook is big enough to work on while away from your desk. Lightweight, with just enough features to get you on the web where you can do email and use web apps.