What makes a good product?

Just the other day I happen to be sipping coffee with a fellow designer friend… By the way that’s what designers do most of the timeJ. And we started to debate on the topic of successful product design.  Both of us are user experience design professionals. But our interests are nothing but all things design.

So my friend here asks me a simple question? Please name three things that make a good product.  I thought that was fairly easy…just three things eh… I admire some of the legends from the Bauhaus school of design such as dieter rams and a lot of my thought process revolves around his 10 commandments of design.  So the three most important things that I think make a good product are:

  • Functional
  • Long Lasting
  • Value for money

What say? Laughter… laughter and more laughter.  He just can’t seem to get over it until I had to punch him… Ok Ok he says and picks up my phone… an iPhone and asks me is this cheap?… I say no… Does this sell?… I say yes… Is this value for money?… Of course!

So he has made his point and whaddya think I’m doing… laughing…laughing and lol. Well I start to explain him that if a product is not functional it will not sell and even if it sells it will never re-sell.  He nods along…long lasting…This again depends on what you are paying and I explain him “What you pay is what you get” he nods along in agreement…raising his eye brows…. Value for money this is adding value to the consumer… this reminds me of my CAT shoes which are about 4 years old and still going strong honestly I am a bit bored of them now… but it doesn’t look like they are showing  me any signs of wearing out sooner  J.

So he just shoves the phone in my face and says listen up experience sells, nope I’m not arguing on this one and explain him that that’s something we both know as user experience professionals. Well to summarize “Everyone can make a good product but only user experience can make a successful product”.  Ok let’s get back to our  coffee before it runs out of steam!

Suggested reading:

Move Over Product Design, UX Is The Future
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025274/move-over-product-design-ux-is-the-future

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