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How to evince the importance of usability to a young turk designer
In a gathering on design and innovation, after the presenters' lengthy highlighting and dwelling on visited foreign organizations' thorough usage testing experiences, an old hand lamented on how difficult it is to convince the nascent designers the importance of user experience.
Just hand over 2 packets of Udon each of a different make. Outwardly, already well striped of the packagings, there is absolutely no difference between the two, equally packed into look alike transparent plastic bags. So, what else is there left for “design” ?
Udon (Japanese style noodle) is for eating, what else? Go ahead. One has to break the seal first, hopefully conveniently. The two packs each does has a cut-out for tearing. Tear them then, one pack's tearing “along the way” could not go far before the resistance to breaking & tearing from (quite thick) plasticity kicks in. Try to grap a knife or a pair of scissors; you might not have one nearby, or else, your hand might be too wet or too greasy as when one is in the thick of cooking as the case should normally be. Just try to squeeze the content out through that narrow opening, you run the risk of breaking up the each calculatedly elongated noodles into pieces to make subsequent chop-sticking them up difficult. Ripe the opening wide with brute force, your blunt fingers and heavy hands would squash the content before long. Such needless aggravation from the mindless manufacturer is what makes the product cheap, after all and all, regardless.
Try to tear the other pack at the designated cut-out from one side. Needless to apply any deliberated force, the tearing smooths along all the way to the other side. The smooth transitions from the plastic bag into a pan,..., thence onto one's mouth make one feels the extra is well spent. A good total user experience is what makes a better product which affords the manufacturer to command a higher price.
