2.6: Product Design Case Study - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems

<v ->Let's review a case study,</v> iPhone versus Blackberry. If anyone had told Blackberry users in 2005 or 2007 that in 10 years, a mobile phone would have one primary button, they would have never believed it. In the early 2000s, the more buttons on a mobile phone, actually, any device, the more complicated, and hence more sophisticated, it was considered. If anyone asked users at this time how they would like to see the new mobile phone model, they would have wanted more buttons, not fewer. So what happened? Did users ask for a simplistic design? No, they wanted additional functionality. Was it the smartphone market and the intense competition from cheaper brand? No, that was still not the case. So what happened then? When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed at its chances, but apps, the ease of creation, ease of use, unlimited functionality and full extensibility, along with simplistic user experience, literally killed Blackberry. No one could believe it at that time. The only way to predict this was to come up with a solution and validate it with customers through early prototyping and customer feedback. In one of the most groundbreaking announcements of the 21st century, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, as a combination of three separate devices, which has before been imagined as one single device. And customers loved it. Even though the 2007 version of the iPhone had 3 1/2-inch diagonal screen with subpar resolution and was not, by far, the most reliable device to use, it stood out as a truly revolutionary product. So, how did Steve Jobs know that customers would love it? You may think he was a product visionary and a genius. Well, maybe, but besides this vision and his ability to put himself in his customers' shoes, Steve Jobs conducted intense validation through prototyping and early user research, and all this allowed him to shape the model in such a way that it immediately met customer needs. It may be hard to believe now that the touchless device that blew everyone's minds didn't come about so easily. The iPhone was the result of years of hard work by Apple's industrial designers. They built a large number of prototypes and CAD designs, and ran hundreds of design sprints in their quest to produce their ultimate smartphone. Multiple prototypes were created, and multiple prototypes failed as a result of customer research over three years of an intense discovery process that led to iPhone creation.