How many products do we use a day? According to designer Karim Rashid, it’s over 600. 

Think about it. Just lying in bed you’re using a mattress, duvet, pillow, sheets, headboard, and bed frame. 

Getting up, going to the bathroom, and getting dressed you'll use dozens more, from the light switch (and bulbs!) to the toilet, tap, sink, toothpaste, toothbrush, bathroom mirror, flooring, and so on. 

We also use hundreds of services a day without even thinking about it, from basic utilities to email, banking or checking the weather.

Each one of these products or services has the potential to enrich our experience. To make life easier or less stressful. To be a source of joy or pleasure. To bring some beauty or a splash of colour to our day. 

They also have the potential to infuriate, frustrate us, or get in the way. To create stress by being unreliable or confusing. To waste our time by being cumbersome to use or needlessly complicated.

The reason that I became a designer in the first place — and the reason I devoted the last ten years to learning and teaching about customer experience — has nothing to do with NPS or satisfaction scores, return on investment calculations, loyalty, retention, brand advocacy, growth, share of wallet or any of the other stuff that dominates the conversation today.

It’s because I fundamentally believe that the interactions we have with those hundreds of products and services each day affects our quality of life. There’s nothing more to it than that. 

I want to make beautiful things that work well with people who care, and help others to do the same. Not because of any commercial rationale — although those are certainly compelling — but because I consider good design to be a service to humanity.

#cx #customerexperience #design

See this post on LinkedIn