=================== Good Experience - 29 Jan 07 ====================
By Mark Hurst
Sign up: http://goodexperience.com/signup.php
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Monday, January 29, 2007

- Innovation and customer experience basics
- For more reading
- 6 Job Openings: NYC (3), NJ, TX, CA
- This Is Broken: we need more entries
- Fun Stuff

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Innovation and customer experience basics
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This past weekend, during an otherwise normal visit to a
bath-and-kitchen store, I was struck by the amount of product being
sold by Apple. There were no iPods or MacBooks among the towels and
mops and kitchen gadgets - no discernible Apple logos - but there
were quite a few items *dependent* on Apple.

I refer to the following six products, a non-exhaustive list that I
compiled while shopping for other things: the iSing, iSnug,
iConnect, iSoundSpa, iBlasterOrb, and taking it one notch higher,
the jWin. (Yes, with a "j". In the words of Spinal Tap, "these go to
eleven.") There were probably others, too, that I missed during my
visit.

While a couple of the products were meant to plug into the Apple
iPod, others were unrelated, somewhat comical "me-too" designs. The
iSing, for example, is a plastic FM radio whose chassis is clearly
inspired by the iPod. The name, the design, even the thing that
looks like a scroll wheel but isn't - everything says "this is close
enough!" - as though the designers were desperate for some of
Apple's magic to rub off on the cheap gadget.

Looking at these not-very-clever knockoffs, I could only think that
they offered a lesson in innovation. It's one thing to make a
superficial copy of a success story; quite another to truly learn
from it and build a success of one's own.

In the early years of the Web boom, I remember clients constantly
asking us, during our consulting projects, to "help us become the
Amazon of our industry." Amazon.com was hot, and many companies
figured that if they could just add the "collaborative filtering" (a
late 90s buzzword, somewhat like "social networking" today) or some
other magic feature that Amazon had, they'd "be like Amazon" and
make boatloads of money.

In that sense, Apple today is like Amazon eight years ago. The iPod
is revered and praised at conferences, on blogs, and in
bath-and-kitchen stores. The praise is well-deserved - the iPod is a
great product - but the lessons people draw from it aren't always
sound. Naming something with an "i" doesn't make it innovative;
neither does adding a fake scroll wheel. Talking and blogging
endlessly about "innovation" - another current buzzword - also
doesn't necessarily mean that anything new is being discussed.

For customer experience practitioners, true innovation means finding
what customers want that's not currently available to them: these
are customers' key unmet needs. They often have nothing to do with
the buzzwords, naming trends, or "hot" features that are currently
in vogue with business magazines and bloggers. If anything, I
usually find that innovation means going back to basics - the *old*
things, the obvious, the simple, the non-fashionable things - and
offering those to customers who really just want a better
experience. Almost by definition, anything that follows current
trends isn't innovative - the trend shows what's *already* been
done!

So consider the irony: the most innovative companies and people
today are often those with the courage to ignore superficial
fashions and strike out on their own path. Sometimes this means
creating something no one has ever seen before, like the iPod. More
often it's a basic improvement: in a society obsessed with the
newest trends and buzzwords, success can be as easy as doing the old
thing that everyone else forgot along the way.

- - -

See all the product images (from iSing to jWin) here:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001196.php#pics

Comment on this article:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001196.php#comments

See more resources for customer experience practitioners:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/cat_resources.php

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For more reading
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Experience of place - changing Manhattan neighborhoods:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001183.php

Experience of place - museums and lines:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001185.php

A librarian on bit literacy - almost:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001186.php

An attempt at a bit literate game:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001190.php

David Pogue on Microsoft's poor PR practices:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001192.php

Fireside chat with Seth Godin and 37signals:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001195.php

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Job Opening: Publicis Dialog (Senior Experience Planner)
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Company: Publicis Dialog
Title: Senior Experience Planner
Location: New York City

Seeking experienced, self-directed, strategically-minded IA/XP to
create interactive user experiences for our healthcare and CPG
clients. Must have very strong core IA skills (wireframes, user
flows, functional specs), lead the definition of project
requirements and present well to clients. Pharma experience a plus.

Email resume and work samples to employment@publicis-usa.com

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Job Opening: RSG Systems (Skunkworks/.Net for Web Engineer)
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Company: RSG Systems
Title: Skunkworks Product Prototype .Net for Web Engineer
Location: New York, NY (Midtown)

You: brilliant .net web engineer w/ passion for simple, easy UE and
beautiful UIs; possess solid DB skills (Oracle, MS SQL); client
presentable, grasp business needs fast; create fast, aesthetic
prototype as part of ultra-lean team; have built one major
product/system. TV, Media, or Entertainment experience a plus.

To respond, email your CV & salary history to UEJobs@rsgsystems.com

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Job Opening: TD Ameritrade (Interaction Designer)
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Company: TD Ameritrade
Title: Interaction Designer
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Join a highly collaborative group. Exciting opportunity for
passionate ID to represent the user needs and help evolve interface.
5+ years designing Web-based transactional products and lg scale
consumer websites, Ability to work within established, goal-oriented
design process, Expert-level knowledge of ID, UID and IA.

To Apply: Recruiting@tdameritrade.com. Job code CE-LLID

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Job Opening: USAA (Customer Experience Analyst)
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Company: USAA
Title: Customer Experience Analyst
Location: San Antonio, TX

As a Customer Experience Analyst for USAA, you will provide
comprehensive customer experience and research skills to the staff
areas of USAA.

Submit resume at the Career Center: http://tinyurl.com/2hw93h

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Job Opening: Ericsson (User Interface Designer - Mobility)
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Company: Ericsson
Title: User Interface Designer - Mobility
Location: New York, NY

Join a creative team in the area of mobile technology,media &
entertainment. Bachelor's degree with at least 2 years exp. in
interactive media design. Familiar with prototyping software and
tools. Knowledge of graphic design tools (Adobe Photoshop,
Illustrator, GoLive or Macromedia Suite).

To apply, visit us at www.ericssonusjobs.com and look for #AL10602

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Job Opening: Los Angeles Times (IA (Inter./Exp. Designer))
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Company: Los Angeles Times
Title: Information Architect (Interaction - Experience Designer)
Location: Downtown Los Angeles, CA

Interested candidates should visit www.latimes.com/timescareers for
a complete job description and send a resume to
internet_jobs@latimes.com and reference Interaction - Experience
Designer in the subject line.

Email your resume to internet_jobs@latimes.com

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All recent job openings...
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See all recent job openings here:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/cat_job_openings.php

Post a job opening:
https://www.goodexperience.com/jobpost

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This Is Broken: recent entries
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I want you to send in a This Is Broken entry!

Usually in this space I summarize the best recent entries at
This Is Broken. But our queue of good entries is getting low.

If you own a digital camera, get out there and take some pictures of
products, interfaces, signs, or places that are poorly design! Help
us get more entries to share on the website.

Send in your entry: broken@goodexperience.com

See more entries:
http://thisisbroken.com

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Fun Stuff
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Creative (and weird) re-uses of common objects (thanks, David G):
http://funny-town.blogspot.com/2006/10/absolute-crazy-innovations.html

Hours and hours of old-time radio:
http://otr.net/

Great skating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI3k--_jqys&eurl=

Star Wars battle enacted with hands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IbV7ad2xgY&eurl=

Food Network shows the future of ads in a TiVo world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE

Video of a human slingshot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2-od4n5Xl0

My online game picks:
http://goodexperience.com/games

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Until next time,

- Mark Hurst
mark@goodexperience.com

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contact info
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ABOUT MARK HURST
Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good and Good Experience, has been
advocating for good experiences for over ten years. He also writes
this newsletter.

Mark Hurst's bio: http://goodexperience.com/about/mark.php
Contact Mark Hurst: mark@goodexperience.com

Gel (Good Experience Live) conference:
http://gelconference.com

Solve your e-mail overload right now:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/001019.php

Uncle Mark 2007 Gift Guide and Almanac:
http://unclemark.org/unclemark2007.pdf

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http://creativegood.com

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