Your 2 year old knows how to grab your smart phone out of your pocket and figure out how to play a video. As technology becomes more intuitive to use and more integrated with everything we use on a daily basis, designing a user-friendly experience becomes easier to do. All this exposure that we have to technology teaches us to expect objects we interact with to act in a certain way and when we like how it works, all we have to do is copy it to create the next new product. But what about when we don’t like how it works? This is when you can learn from your grandfather that can’t figure out how to place a phone call on the same smart phone that your child is using to ask Siri the answers to his homework. Sometimes it is great to jump on board with the newest trend, but sometimes it’s beneficial to think about why a trend has become popular. This gives you a chance to take a step back from technology and consider how it fits in to the world around you, and is something that life experience will compel you to do more often.
I learn from my experiences as a mom and sometimes apply the same techniques when brainstorming for a new product: How can I simplify my instructions enough that a child would understand it? How can I design something that will be used in the way I intend? Will the outcome be what I expect? (If I pack a lunchbox with a whole wheat sandwich, a vegetable and cookies, can I really expect that it will be returned to me with any leftover cookies?) How can I clean up this mess in a way that it won’t happen again (ok, that one I’m still working on…)? We pay close attention to the feedback we get from the people who use our products. We use this combination of life experience, research, data and exploration to constantly make them better with each iteration.