Superhero Tools Inspire Consumer – Centric Design

superhero-2503808_640_1500591512Think about all our familiar, modern superheroes: Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Ironman, and Wonder Woman. What differentiates them from others is, at least in part, a heroic attitude, let’s call it swagger.  All the movies that trace their exploits did an excellent job of taking us vicariously through their adventures, making us believe that just about anything was possible. They beat up the bad guys, catch the corrupt official red handed, and move seamlessly through the highest echelons of society.  The other key differentiator was the cool tech tools that let them back up their attitude. Iron man has his suit. Captain America and Wonder Woman sport a virtually indestructible high tech shield that protects from anything and everything, Dead-shot had his cool looking Augmented reality eyepiece, a signature trademark, to augment his already amazing marksman skills.

In our high-tech supply chains, product developers, engineers, and supply chain professionals engage in building the next generation of high tech devices. Too often, we focus on capabilities to the detriment of considering how it give the user superhero swagger.

If you think about it, part of the reason why people are buying these devices, is to look good. For example, Apple is the first smart watch maker to cash in on the idea that a watch is an emotional purchase and that people, particularly men, are likely to fall in love with shiny elegance.  Meanwhile, AR glass designs, such as Microsoft Holo lens, ODG Glass, and Recon heads up displays, remain clunky. It’s no wonder that Google Glass wearers were sometimes called the Glassholes. For these devices to get broader consumer adoption, they really need to add some swag to the wearer, make the wearer look cool and elegant.

Let’s look at an automotive example. TATA Motors in India launched a mini truck.  During their customer discovery process, it became clear that they needed a four-wheel design for the mini truck. A three-wheel design had a lot to recommended it, both working well and cutting expense. However, the potential customers, mostly young drivers, preferred a four-wheeler truck. Culturally, there was a perception that three wheels was less cool, too much like a simple auto rickshaw. It simply didn’t have the prestige that these young drivers wanted to impress potential spouses. A bride’s parents would happily get their daughter married to a driver that drove a truck with four wheels but not an auto rickshaw that had only three wheels.

So what are your thoughts on helping customer swagger with your products?  What designs make customers feel like a superhero when they wear or use your product? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Author:
Puga Sankara
About:
Puga Sankara is the co-founder of Smart Gladiator LLC. Smart Gladiator designs, builds, and delivers market-leading mobile technology for retailers, distributors, and 3PL service providers. So far, Smart Gladiator Wearables have been used to ship, receive, and scan more than 50 million boxes. Users love them for the lightweight, easy-to-use soft overlay keyboard and video chatting ability, data collection ability etc. Puga is a supply chain technology professional with more than 17 years of experience in deploying capabilities in the logistics and supply chain domain. His prior roles involved managing complicated mission-critical programs driving revenue numbers, rolling out a multitude of capabilities involving more than a dozen systems, and managing a team of 30 to 50 personnel across multiple disciplines and departments in large corporations such as Hewlett Packard. He has deployed WMS for more than 30 distribution centers in his role as a senior manager with Manhattan Associates. He has also performed process analysis walk-throughs for more than 50 distribution centers for WMS process design and performance analysis review, optimizing processes for better productivity and visibility through the supply chain. Size of these DCs varied from 150,000 to 1.2 million SQFT. Puga Sankara has an MBA from Georgia Tech. He can be reached at puga@smartgladiator.com or visit the company at www.smartgladiator.com. Also follow him at www.pugasankara.com.
More articles by: Puga Sankara

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.