Harry Brignull quotes a passage from Susan Marks' Finding Betty Crocker to tell the story of how the cake mix maker used a clever bit of imagination about the process of using their product to give customers the feeling of playing a desirable role--that of home-maker and cook. They did this by simply requiring that real eggs be used in making cakes, rather than incorporating powered egg, and marketed this as a benefit.
Brignull sums up the use of psychology in the creation of this story and sense of role as a clever manipulation of the user experience.
[P]sychologists realized the customer wanted to play the role of a successful home-maker and cook. We could even go so far to argue that their customers may have felt societal pressures to perform this role well. The egg, therefore, becomes more than an ingredient, and more than just an extra pleasurable step. It becomes a prop, enabling the customer to play a social role.
Brignull points out that we can make that comparison to usability and efficiency vs. the creation of emotional contact and the feeling of satisfaction. The egg stands in place of some role that enables some aspect of the fulfilling experience. Looking at the experience from this perspective has so much to do with understanding the customer, and what they want to get out of making cakes.
That's a great example of understanding your customer. It's also a great example of how many modern conveniences have replaced real, meaningful interactions with the world around us with the illusion of participation. It becomes a shell of the original experience.
Luckily, there's a movement in the other direction. Think Slow Food, and books like Shop Class as Soulcraft.
And there's slow blogging in reaction to microblogging and the often terse type of entries that I post. For me personally, there's a movement away from technology for technology's sake, i.e. eschewing technology at appropriate times for pencil and paper.
I guess to sum up, the lesson here is that there may be a potential to miss the connections that matter to the customer in a blind drive for efficiency and usability.
I think Don Norman referred to that same story in "The Design of Everyday Things".
@Rob Jones: I think that was in Emotional Design?
I admit I haven't read Norman's book on Emotional Design (btw I'm the author of the post that Michael's kindly featured above). Did Don come to the same conclusions as I did? Or did he come to Nathan's conclusion that adding an egg is "a great example of how many modern conveniences have replaced real, meaningful interactions with the world around us with the illusion of participation"...? I don't see the two as mutually exclusive. I personally would never buy a pre-made cake mix, but I still see it as a clever piece of design.
@Harry Brignull: Norman wrote about understanding how the user's sense of self factors into their emotional connection with a product or process of using the product. I think he was just mentioning the Betty Crocker story because they're one of those companies that understood that customers could form an emotional attachment to the product because of this connection&38212;feeling satisfied in the role it allows them to play.
I think JibbaJabba is right, it was in Don Norman's emotional design book. His conclusion was that it made people feel better by being more involved in the process. If the process was too easy it was not as enjoyable. Good book, I recommend it (Design of everyday things is amazing).
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