Designing Humanity into Your Products

Bill DeRouchey, Director, Interaction Design, Ziba Design, USA

Relationships are formed in the smallest moments and intimate details within each and every interaction, even between people and products. Paying attention to these details can make or break a product, or a company. And when the economy is bad, every edge counts. Interaction design can make the difference in survival times like now. Interaction with a product is far more than how it’s used or how it behaves. It’s about connection between two sides. One side is the customer, but the other side is much more than a product or service. To many people, the character and essence of a product and its company are identical. So what is the essence of your product? Is your product human or a machine? When your product behaves like a machine, your company is perceived to be a machine. Just another company, rigid, mechanical, cold. Yet when your products display a bit of humanity, your company gains a face and becomes another human. In this session, we’ll see examples of how humanity has been designed into products and services through humor, personality, and emotion. We’ll discover how just a little extra design effort and thought beyond functional needs can enrich the experience, reveal the company behind the product, and forge enduring connections with customers.