A study of Apple iPhone Design Strategies in relation to product attributes
Shubhojit Roy
Master of Information Technology, UTS, Sydney
15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007
P: +61 2 9514 2000
E: Shubhojit.Roy@student.uts.edu.au
ABSTRACT
In the present age of information products not only need to discharge their inherent functions effortlessly but also adapt to the user needs and the environments. Certainly this notion predicts a manner how the product should be perceived and designed to generate maximum positive outcome like favorable return on investment for business and gain a lasting impression in the minds of the consumers and afford him superior performance. In order to guarantee these notions favorably this report explores the product attributes affected by design strategies in relation to Apple’s iPhone, a 3rd generation information age product.
KEYWORDS
Product design; Functional differentiation; Emotional user experience;
1. INTRODUCTION
A good design is a mark of superior performance. Apple’s new iPhone has a superior product design and it manages to elicit emotional response from its consumers or patrons, evident in the loyalty, the sense of joy of use and a feel of passion in the smart phone market segment. It is a high-design
product, which looks not only stylish and smooth but also it mixes and matches definitive software power and style in a mobile device (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 441 and Walker et al., 2009, p. 206). The aim of this research report is to study the various product attributes in relation to design strategies that iPhone designers at Apple incorporate to enclose complexity and non-linearity that is common to all 3rd generation information age product like the iPhone.
The iPhone is not a fixed, bureaucratic, ambiguous technology juggernaut in an internet ‘blogosphere’ habited by mobile devices and information. On the contrary it is a fluid, adaptive, elegant device, and it has a lot of underlying technology hidden from view. Designers at Apple cannot anticipate the extent of their product’s use, so, they believe in the principle of ‘through life capability’ enabling them to take advantage of existing and future developments. They employ dynamic design fundamentals, where design occurs ‘through-life’ of the product with the end user’s participation, however, passive that might be, and the iPhone’s capability is enhanced based on usage and performance. This implies that the iPhone is not considered as an end product, at least not in traditional sense, but acclimatizes itself to dynamic information infrastructure it is connected to and favorably responds to users’ needs in their environments (Walker et al., 2009, pp. 206-207). Ergo, organizations such as Apple concentrate a significant portion of their energy to determine a direct relationship between design concepts and specifications vis-à-vis desirable consumer outcomes in order to place their product, iPhone, as a unique emotional experience in the consumers’ minds (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 441).
The designers are able to picture a continual transition and a process of user-product ‘co-evolution’ for the development and success of iPhone (Walker et al., 2009, p. 207). They are able to organize the revolution and channelize the innate capabilities of the product in relation to its needs in the user environment. The entire design in such case is a collaborative process, where inputs and outputs coexist in equilibrium in a dynamic environment.
2. PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES
Unlike that in Industrial age design in Information age is characterized as a holistic process that comprises orchestrating aesthetics, style, functionalities and ergonomics pattern of the product. In Information age product design stretches beyond the limitations of functional differentiation parameters of the manufactured product, what the the product ‘is’, and encompasses the final concept of product use or as to what the final product ‘does’ (Walker et al., 2009 p. 207). Thus, in the information age the outcome of emotional value creation though underutlized but superior to the outcome of functional differentiation infuses poweful design elements and makes strong and lasting customer connections. This prespective of design deserves further examination (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 442 and Walker et al., 2009, p. 207).
2.1 Rule of subsumption
Designers at Apple effectively amalgamated different design elements to achieve long-term relational outcomes along with functional differentiation for competitive advantages. Furthermore, the designers designed the iPhone to satisfy user needs, rather than offer ambiguous functionalities. And they built the brand by satisfying those needs rather than convey brand messages arbitrarily (Forrester Research, Inc.). Moreover, Brooks in 1986 (cited in Walker et al., 2009, pp. 207-208) proposed ‘The rule of subsumption’ for product design, which encompassed significant manufactured attributes of a product like reliability and dependability, critical building blocks, and envisioned the products properties enabling it to perform the common mundane activities optimally and smoothly. And with respect to iPhone these are enlisted as follows:
2.1.1 Employ the product to do the simple tasks first nd do those tasks perfectly. Like the iPhone discharges the functions of a Phone, a GPS receiver, PDA, MP3 player easily and smoothly.
2.1.2 Incorporate new layers of activity, so, as to integrate and combine the simple tasks in a holistic manner. Like in iPhone the presence of an interface layer that combines the simple tasks.
2.1.3 Not to modify the simple things, as evident in the iPhone the simple things function soundly and are not radically altered to incorporate technological aberrations.
The above rule leads to blurring of boundary between designers and users. Further Scacchi in 2004 stated that the sphere of control in this artificial ecosystem that Information age products inhabit becomes highly permeable and porous (cited in Walker et al., 2009, p. 208). And the consumers become prosumers (Tapscott & William, 2007).
2.2 Fluid product structure
Reliable and dependable technology of the product, manufactured article, as evident in terms of top-down control, affords it functional differentiation and a temporal competitive advantage in terms of transactional outcomes based on the discrete choice of the consumer. But a little more flexible product design, as evident in terms of bottom-up approach, firmly establishes a long standing relationship between the organization and the consumers. Then, as acknowledged by Weiser in 1991 (cited in Walker et al., 2009, p. 208) the product becomes subsumed or transparent and its working is ‘indistinguishable from the fabric of everyday life’. Law in 2003 mentioned that from the user’s perspective what is important is that though he or she remains disconnected to the individual functions of the heterogeneous parts of the technological artifacts the system as a whole behaves coherently and fulfills his needs (cited in Walker et al., 2009, p. 209)
2.3 Everywhere: product location
Another factor for the iPhone’s success is in its ability to readily provide the Internet and present its web browsing capability to its customers. The iPhone since its inception in 2007 set the standard for mobile web surfing (West & Mace, 2010). And it provided the internet to its users everywhere (at least where the mobile telecommunications networks, internet or wi-fi existed) simultaneously and in doing so the backend technology remained transparent to user. And for providing that service designers did not constrain the device in anyway, it did not need to be plugged into any power supply to become functional. The user could stay connected even though he was mobile. In the mobile world designers are positioning the iPhone in a manner that the ‘servitisation’ of mobile phones is definite reality in the near future (Walker et al., 2009, p. 209).
3 DESIGN STRATEGIES
In order to appeal to consumers on a holistic and emotional level designers employ some general product design techniques to enhance the products like increasing its design value, both functional and emotional, to gain tangible returns on investment and drive the business. These are general design strategies and are listed as follows: Utilitarian, Kinesthetic, and Visual design techniques. Albeit, employed for generating a significant type of outcome such as functional differentiation or emotional response these techniques are not mutually exclusive but need to be applied simultaneously in design cycle to accumulate favorable response (Noble & Kumar, 2008, pp. 445-446).
3.1 Utilitarian design
This form of design tactics concentrates on the realistic benefits a product generates. It achieves functional differentiation and drives competitive advantages for the organization via enhancing efficacy, reliability, durability and safety of products. The Apple designers of iPhone incorporate this design technique by combining the functions of a PDA, telephone and an MP3 player in order to create a multifunctional device. Despite the prevalence of increase complexity and confusion of the multifunctional device, designers work to secure efficiency owing to multifunctional nature of the iPhone. In such situation designers work to seek potential beneficial opportunities for functional consolidation, and this design strategy enhances the utilitarian value and functional differentiation of a product in a cost effective way (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 446).
3.2 Kinesthetic design
This technique enhances both functional differentiation and emotional value. Apple designers incorporate this technique to create an ergonomically well-designed and comfortable product, which does the extra ordinary job ordinarily and uses one button for navigating the entire system. Utilizing this concept optimally designers are able to acquire increasing attention for iPhone in the smart phone market segment. Kinesthetic design technique pays greater attention to human factors shaping considerations in the design of things. Kinesthetically designed products lend customers a greater sense of control and a sense of reduced endeavor, which creates a positive emotional experience for the user (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 447).
3.3 Visual design
This is the most common approach signifying the meaning of design to most observers. It is driven by form and communicates value to the consumer sans any interaction with the product. It focuses mainly on generation of an emotional response among the consumers. Further Margin et al. in 2003 stated that visual design shapes product personality emanating from design elements and generates noteworthy reactions in marketplace for the product. Moreover, visual design boasts of novelty in design stemming from desired consumer expectation. So, in order to produce newness in the design designers must assure a delicate balance between familiarity and maximum consumer appeal. Like the presence of one button on the iPhone to navigate the entire system. Visual design further suggests the importance of high design for iPhone, which not only makes a lasting visual impression on the consumers but also secures a strong emotional response, and because of strong sense of style it invokes consumers are ready to ignore any performance anomaly in the system, albeit they are charged a premium for the high designed product (Noble & Kumar, 2008, p. 448).
4 CONCLUSION
Apple’s product design capability has not only placed its product, the iPhone, as a par excellence, premium product, but also recognized the iPhone as a powerful differentiating factor in consumer marketplace. And in order to generate a favorable and an emotional response such as the one generating a sense of joy of possession among the users, designers employ an amalgamation of design strategies to enhance product attributes. And, it is aptly evident that product designers at Apple for the iPhone use a collaborative approach to highlight its functional characteristics like reliability and durability and envelop those attributes of the product as per the needs of the user in relation to the dynamic environment using that product (Noble & Kumar, 2008, pp. 449). The emotional user experience outcome of design generates deeper consumer connections and it has a powerful positive influence on the business. However, because of the collaborative nature of the design strategies there is a commensalism approach followed in terms of product design and organization cannot gather an emotional response for a functionally underperforming or inadequate product.
