Technologist are fascinated by the amount of functionality that can be packed into a product. The more functionality, the better. Remember when everyone had a flip-phone and the chore it was to exchange phone numbers with someone. The event took about five minutes because people were forced to access the alphabets by clicking multiple time on the keypad to access the letters to spell out the person’s name. The fact that you are still able to purchase flip phones today is still an issue, but the task of exchanging information has been reduced to an electronic fist bump between phones. The functionality to exchange information has always been available to the users, but the difficulty in accessing the functionality has been greatly simplified (if you possess a smartphone)!

If you happen to be old enough to remember the dilemma experienced by owners of video recorders, this topic should cause you to have horrible flashbacks! This is yet another example of where the programming of the electronic device was left to the interested consumer. Those days of the high-touch consumer model in engaging technology are rapidly disappearing and have gone the way of the Jurassic era. Nowadays, we access functionality with the wave of a hand or by voice command.

Have you noticed that knobs, switches and buttons are becoming rare on new technology based products? If you wish to know the name of a tune playing over the loudspeaker, tap the Siri app and hold up your phone. The system performs the analysis and returns a title in text. The new Amazon Echo accepts voice queries and commands and delivers voice feedback on all requests. The days of verbally commanding technology has finally arrived!

For many humans, these new and easily accessible technology products are part of a metamorphosis of products that are more human-friendly, because they take on the burden that used to be imposed on the consumer. Now, this is how it should have been from the start. The technology is there (as it has always been), but it is physically hidden from the user. There are no knobs to turn (except for speaker volume, maybe) or buttons to push. The products are always on and ready to serve your every request (with a pleasant voice or that of your favorite cartoon character).

Technology companies have adopted new product engineering strategies that examine typical and atypical customer use cases in order to figure out how to release the customers from the intellectual burden of setup and use through tactile interfaces. Instead, companies are making products that are more intuitive without sacrificing any functionality. In fact, new functionality may be added over time and over the network. This type of technology refresh happens daily with cellular phones. New operating system updates and application updates are pushed out to create new customer experiences without requiring them to acquire new phones.

Product development and deployment involves a heavy dose of complexity on the side of the manufacturing companies so that the customers may experience the bliss of simplicity!

Thinkedgy