xdiscipline Thoughts across disciplines by Engin Erdoğan

I am sure you heard of the term prosumer. The emerging target audience segments that not only consume, but create. As defined by Wikipedia:

Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word producer or professional with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy.  

This is important for product design, especially for software. Because, it is an indication that the meanings of product, use, and user are evolving. End-product is not the end of the product’s development, it’s a platform that people can use, change, and build upon. In addition to being consumers, users can be sounding boards for feedback during development cycles and they can also be developers who can add unexpected twists to your end-product.So, how does one embrace and leverage this new form of target audience in product design? Here are some ideas for starters:

• Release earlier. Instead of getting lost in internal feedback cycles, put the product out and get users to involve as soon as possible.
• Make polishing a parallel track. As long as the core experience is there, people can start experiencing the product, while the perfectness is improved in parallel.
• Encourage and promote mix-mash-mod. An aspiring developer can extend your product to reach a new audience in the most unexpected ways.
• Communicate the background of updates with collected feedback. After all, your users own your product, they might want to know.
• Facilitate knowledge share between users. Let people teach each other tips and tricks on how to build upon the product.
• Make your users proud of their effort. Give visibility and credit to development efforts and treat people as your collaborators.

Feel free to add if you have more.

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I am quite annoyed at the airports because of all the security check points. It’s just tiring to disassemble myself and belongings, walk 2 meters, and reassemble. However, I realized that I am even more annoyed at passport/document check points in most countries.

When I enter/exit a country, a lovely officer checks my passport and documents. And looking at my passport, they enter some numbers in the computer. It’s okay until here, they need to check if the passport is real, my documentation has official basis etc. The thing that really bothers me is that I cannot see what’s on the screen. I cannot see what the officer is looking at, and seeing what’s about me. The officer’s monitor is equipped with the screen privacy filter. I cannot see my own information unless I am sitting at the officer’s seat.

A privacy filter protecting my information from me. This makes me really uncomfortable, I feel like I am a potential suspect. This is like being in an investigation room. You are a potential suspect and someone (who you cannot see) behind the one-way mirror is identifying you.

I think I should also be able to see what the officer is looking at, so that this is a much more mutual social transaction. He does his job, I travel with less stress.

Photo credit: Shingo

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