Feminine Sensibilities In App Design
Something is very different in designing and marketing gadgets and “apps” in today’s world. Performance, while important, is no longer king, and consumers demand that the darned things fit into or ease their lifestyles. Interestingly to me, that often means a re-think of a concept or product from its masculine beginnings toward the feminine sensibilities. Mind you, that means this is no simple “marketing to women” change.
Instead, the thing to note is that lots of great products designed in years past came from minds mainly focused on performance, status, and making a super cool gee-gaw better than the competition’s. If you were able to review research that drove so many product developments back then, it would likely be clear that not a lot of end consumers were involved in the process. The designer/engineer knew better than some silly user, after all. The result? Gadgets and technology that have all the necessary specs and functions, but don’t easily fit the various ways people want to integrate them into their lives.
Remember those first PDAs, way back when? Talk about shiny new object-phenomenon. The manufacturers didn’t really start to “get” how consumers used them for several years – but they sure looked good as described in marketing material bullet points!
Anyway – 21st Century consumers are now calling manufacturers and designers on the carpet for this disconnect.
I came across one such story in the July/Aug issue of Fast Company. It’s about the designers of the Fitbit Tracker – a pedometer times 10. This activity monitor calculates steps taken, as well as calories burned and sleep patterns – all in a discrete package. Gadi Amit (designer) and James Park (co-founder of Fitbit) were interviewed by FC about how they came up with this clever product. As Amit and Park put it:
“Most pedometers are quite male-oriented. They’re focused on numeric achievement and look like electronic gear.”
They went on to say that their perspective switch in designing Fitbit was to go from pure performance to a wellness-centered one. Their product suits a more urban lifestyle, not just a “fitness” situation. Fitbit is made to disappear into a person’s clothing, “whether that’s an evening gown or a running shoe, effortlessly carried 24/7 by either gender.”
As brilliant as it should have been obvious to earlier pedometer designers, don’t you think?
In this one little product and case study, I see evidence of a wise, wise shift. Simply marketing a fancier but same-old pedometer to women might have attracted initial attention from female consumers (while alienating men), BUT applying feminine sensibilities – which everyone has – in your re-design is the more effective way to gain trust and sales. By doing so, your product will very strongly resonate with women, as well as the men who like the numeric/performance aspects (and who actually respond to the more lifestyle-y stuff too).
Slapping on a “pink-wash” would have been beyond short-sighted for the Fitbit. But, doing the work to revisit the entire concept and truly understand how people will most use it in their lives gave their product the elusive women’s market approval… and so much more.
