Information Architecture for online world

A study of Apple iPhone Design Strategies in relation to product attributes

2010-04-04T21:19:00.001-07:00

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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.

Web template

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Nice healer

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text design

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Digital Planetary Image

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Digital Composition

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Digital image gallery

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Digital Composition

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Digital Composition

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Digital Composition

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A few quotes about UXD and IA

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“It’s the total experience that matters. And that starts from when you first hear about a product… experience is more based upon memory than reality. If your memory of the product is wonderful, you will excuse all sorts of incidental things.”
- Don Norman, 2008

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
- Steve Jobs

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
- Charles Mingus

Abstract

2009-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Abstract:

The proposal will explore the relationship between Information Architecture and usability (Usability Engineering) and examine the reflection of information architecture from the physical world into the virtual world of web or mobile internet. The research proposal will explore the definition of information architecture (IA) and study its evolution and adaptation in the context of mobile internet from the web world. Qualitative research methodologies for the research shall be used, including a phone based structured interview, in addition to a web based survey. The proposed research will be of value to professionals and academics across the disciplines of IA studies.

Approaches and Methodology

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E 4 Approaches and Methodology

The research methodologies aim in locating the variables to study the factors of Information Architecture (IA) influencing User Centered Design (UCD) to enrich User Experience (UX) and to provide basic information about the aspect of research finding and guideline for the project proposal. In this respect many diverse methodologies are needed to develop sound and timely answers to the questions that were proposed in the questionnaire (Assessment task 1 in ITRM-32931). The proposal highlights two methods, which use structured interview techniques, such as phone based interview and a web survey, which would be exercised to gather data to endorse the research findings towards developing the variables for the project. These methodologies will incorporate structured interview techniques. This section describes the approaches for collating data by conducting interviews and performing a web based survey using Structured Interviewing Techniques to get detailed information for the research proposal (The General Accounting Office - USA, 1991).

A structured interview uses data-collection instruments (DCIs), as it requires the same or uniform information. The information collated by telephone or web survey in structured interview, where participants are asked same questions and the in turn the participants select same set of possible responses, can be organized, interpreted , compared and analyzed easily later. The target populations for the study are professionals dealing in marketing, IA, web/mobile site designing and building web/mobile applications within organizations. These are people engaging in user experience design. The participants for the study shall be sourced from networking organization and associations such as Mobile Monday (MoMo) Global and Sydney, IA peers and Usability Professionals’ association by approaching in person or forwarding e-mails or visiting the UTS web site or other social networking sites such as twitter.com or linkedin.com having notifications and links to the web survey. So, these means will be used to distribute the questionnaire. For the research study the telephone based interview and the web survey shall be conducted concurrently, as in that event the respondents have adequate time to fill the web survey and can respond to the questions in the web survey as per their convenience and be sensitive to the answers that they provide and also the individuals participating in the interview are not rushed and can be contacted as per their convenience. However, participants will need to respond either to a telephone interview or to a web survey and there shall not be any duplication of their responses. The purpose of conducting dual modes of investigation is to gather responses from Australia, mainly through telephone based interview, and from professionals in the industry in the other parts of world such as the UK, the USA, Japan and some parts of Asia via the web based survey.

The telephone based structured interview are more successful with participants as spoken words or sentences are easy to understand than written ones. The telephone interview enables the interviewer to establish rapport with the respondents. The interview can succinctly clarify the question to the participant and get an answer without jeopardizing the integrity of the interview. An Internet (web) based survey incorporating a structured interview is beneficial as web based survey are organized, inexpensive, do not cost anything to the respondent, the respondents can take the survey at leisure and choose to answer methodically. The labor needed to administer these is very low and less but the expertise needed to construct them is high, so that later the analysis to be done becomes simple. As the participants are busy, so, through web based survey they can answer the queries as per their convenience as well as be sensitive towards the answers. Moreover a web based survey is considered optimum, when capturing data is from specific section of population. Also the web based survey yields more data and information as compared to telephonic interview. In short Internet based surveys are cost effective, have more responses and convenient to the participants (Cobanoglu, Warde & Moreo, 2001, pp 407-408).

The main advantage of telephone interviewing from the researcher point of view is people can be reached in a relatively short period of time. And from the respondents standpoint it would eliminate any discomfort that some of them would feel less uncomfortable disclosing personal information over the phone than face to face. A main disadvantage of telephone interviewing is that the respondent could unilaterally terminate the interview without warning or explanation, by hanging up the phone (blurtit, 2007). The main advantage of web based survey compared to any paper survey would be the higher speed and response rates of participants (surveyspro, 2009). The disadvantage in web based survey would be the need to remind people to take the survey, so that their responses could be collated in time.

The structured interview questions can be categorized as descriptive, normative or impact (cause-and-effect). Descriptive question describe information about specific conditions of a situation, while a normative question compares between an expected and observed outcome. An impact (cause-and-effect) question aims to determine whether observed outcomes can be recognized as outputs of situations. In the research proposal the approaches and methodology of web survey (sample survey) and Interview (phone based) will collect data from a sample to determine the distribution, and relationship of events and conditions.

The structured interview techniques focus on information collection. And information obtained from the participants in the sample can be analyzed properly. Thus, mostly structured interviews are used along with statistical sampling. This combination provides data that can be used to make projections about the entire population from which the sample was drawn. The questions in the structured interview are interrelated and iterative, as the aim of the proposal, selection of the method for collection of information and exploring an analysis plan to examine the collected information are related. Thus, the use of structured interviewing to collect information is not an isolated task, unrelated to or independent of other tasks, and cannot be thought of as a sequential task either.

In the proposal the sample survey constructed will follow a stratified sampling technique because the participants are divided into different sections based on the type of profession they are engaged in the organization. For the purpose of coherent analysis the population is divided into people, who are professionals in IA, and web/mobile site designers and web/mobile application engineers. The data collected shall be classified as categorical data based on ordinal and shall be interpreted using pie graphs. The research proposal shall use the statistical techniques to measure central tendency and dispersion. The data collected will be fed into SPSS software package for analysis purposes.

The approaches and methodology and timeframe for the research proposal are summarized in the table below: -

	Telephone based interview	web based survey
Timeframe	2 months	3 Months
Objective	Qualitative data collection	Qualitative data collection
Process	In depth structured interviews	In depth structured interviews
Number of participants	5	50