{"id":646,"date":"2022-09-08T12:51:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T05:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnsd.binus.ac.id\/graphic-design\/?p=646"},"modified":"2022-09-08T12:51:16","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T05:51:16","slug":"ui-ux-design-the-end-of-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/graphic-design\/2022\/09\/08\/ui-ux-design-the-end-of-products\/","title":{"rendered":"UI\/UX Design: The End of \u201cProducts\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/green-bushes-on-desert-998653\/<\/p>\n

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Why products as we know them will more than likely disappear in the next ten years, and give way to the rise of micro-services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Overview<\/h1>\n

In the not-too-distant future, there will more than likely come a time when products as we know them today will disappear forever.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that products themselves will cease to exist, but the definition of what a product is or does will have to fundamentally change to accommodate shifting market conditions.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019ll cover why products as we know them will more than likely disappear in the next ten years, and give way to the rise of micro-services.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re drowning in products<\/h1>\n

The first and foremost problem that we face as UI\/UX and product designers is that the world is already drowning in products, both physical and digital, all of which are vying for user attention.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/person-drowning-in-water-3651632\/<\/p>\n

Close your eyes, toss a rock, and 9\/10 times you\u2019ll hit a product or service that \u201cdoes\u201d what you\u2019re looking to do.<\/p>\n

The trouble isn\u2019t with products specifically, it\u2019s with the economics and market conditions that are impelling these products in the first place.<\/p>\n

Most \u201ccompeting\u201d products are exactly the same<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s face it, most products that do anything anymore coexist within a domain that has been ABSOLUTELY SATURATED by products\/services that do more or less the exact same thing.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Steaming:\u00a0<\/strong>HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, etc.<\/li>\n
  • Transportation:\u00a0<\/strong>Uber, Lyft, Curb, Bolt, Gett, Cabify, etc.<\/li>\n
  • Food delivery:<\/strong>\u00a0Grubhub, DoorDash, UberEats, Instacart, EatStreet, Gopuff, Postmates, etc.<\/li>\n
  • Buying a car:<\/strong>\u00a0Autolist, Autotrader, CarFax, CarGurus, Cars.com, Edmunds, TrueCar, etc.<\/li>\n
  • Investing:\u00a0<\/strong>Betterment, Invstr, Acorns, Wealthbase, Wealthfront, Fidelity, Robinhood, Charles Schwab, Ellevest, etc.<\/li>\n
  • Buying a house:<\/strong>\u00a0Zillow, Xome, Trulia, Homesnap, Realtor.com, Redfin, etc.<\/li>\n
  • <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    \n
    \n
    https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/gray-asphalt-road-between-green-grass-field-under-white-cloudy-sky-5408541\/<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \n

    And the list goes on, and on, and on, off towards the digital horizon.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s only so many ways to compete<\/h2>\n

    Taking a step back for a second, there are also only so many ways that your product can compete on the open market. We\u2019ve covered these at length in the past, but we\u2019ll hit them here again for emphasis:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Emotional value:<\/strong>\u00a0how you help people feel<\/li>\n
    • Utility value:<\/strong>\u00a0what you help people do<\/li>\n
    • Convenience value:<\/strong>\u00a0how easy you make the process for people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

      At the end of the day, those are the three and ONLY three things that you can compete on. Everything else falls under those umbrellas.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Exclusive content? Feel and do.<\/li>\n
      • Fast response time? Easy and feel.<\/li>\n
      • Quality service? Feel, do, and ease.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        You see where I\u2019m going with this; there are ONLY so many ways you can compete!<\/p>\n

        Which begs the question: what happens when all of these niches have been more or less filled to the point where there\u2019s not really enough room to compete in the same domain with any form of economic viability?<\/p>\n

        Answer: you get where we are now.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

        <\/p>\n

        https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/white-water-boat-753331\/<\/p>\n

        A boatload of products that do basically the exact same thing while desperately attempting to compete for the last bastions of consumer liquidity.<\/p>\n

        Digital products are on their way out<\/h1>\n

        With all of this in mind, it\u2019s small wonder that most users, when directly questioned or observed, are sick of the app-soup that they\u2019re constantly pelted with now.<\/p>\n

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        • Every company has an app.<\/li>\n
        • Every app needs an account.<\/li>\n
        • Every account wants your personal data.<\/li>\n
        • Every experience comes with a price.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n

          \u201cI don\u2019t want to make an account for everything! Stop asking!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \u201cThink about how fragmented the user experience is, with all apps having different designs, features, limitations, and users.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \u201cAfter reviewing my productivity processes today I noticed that the many apps I use on a day-to-day basis each have their own strength but don\u2019t compliment each other.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \u201cNeeding to sign up for accounts for everything nowadays is ridiculous.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \u201cI just want to buy a tshirt. I have no desire to subscribe to your site. While we\u2019re at it, f*** your app.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \u201cOh yeah, a special \u201cF*** you\u201d to all the companies that try to use their app as a substitute for a website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Expecting people to waste space and resources on their phone, to install, \u201csign up\u201d & give unreasonable level of \u201cpermissions\u201d to their app, that just offers basic functions that SHOULD be available on their website.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

          These are real quotes.<\/p>\n

          As designers, we can\u2019t ignore the rising tide of users who are sick of dealing with products and platforms that force users to put in more effort than necessary to deliver results.<\/p>\n

          This will ultimately trigger the downfall of apps and what will happen next.<\/p>\n

          The rise of micro-services<\/h1>\n

          The next incarnation of applications that will serve users will look somewhat different to the products that we have now.<\/p>\n

          <\/p>\n

          Amazon Micro-service Concept, it knows what you like, and it knows what you\u2019ll buy.<\/p>\n

          Instead of full-blown experiences with multiple screens, options, etc. they will more than likely take the form of data-driven applets which leverage machine learning to get users where they want to go as quickly and efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n

          They will feature stripped-down UI\u2019s, minimal points of interaction, and the smallest level of user intervention required to create a viable transaction.<\/p>\n

          A user will open an applet, a temporary widget, or use their voice to find one, it will launch, present the user with what they\u2019re looking for, and ask them to confirm the transaction.<\/p>\n

          After that, the order will be placed, and the service will deliver the outcomes as-promised, no hassle, no haggle, no accounts, no B.S., just exactly what was ordered.<\/p>\n

          Don\u2019t make me think again<\/h1>\n

          We revisit an old classic in the UX world \u201cDon\u2019t Make Me Think\u201d we advises us that the greatest method of creating a great user experience is to prevent the user from having to think while getting towards their desired outcomes.<\/p>\n

            \n
          • Push button, receive bacon.<\/li>\n
          • Push button, receive friends.<\/li>\n
          • Receive praise.<\/li>\n
          • Social validation.<\/li>\n
          • Entertainment.<\/li>\n
          • A sense of belonging.<\/li>\n
          • Meaning.<\/li>\n
          • Purpose.<\/li>\n
          • Growth.<\/li>\n
          • Transcendence of the self.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Push the button, get the thing. That is the essence of modern UX as applied to products.<\/p>\n

            <\/p>\n

            https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/person-in-blue-denim-jeans-and-white-socks-sitting-on-brown-wooden-floor-4107151\/<\/p>\n

            So it would make sense that we\u2019re headed away from products themselves towards outcomes, as brands and platforms fade into the background of our lives; no different than the trees which supply vital oxygen or the animals that pollinate our crops.<\/p>\n

            These products and services will give way to micro-services which, ever-microing, will allow users to get exactly what they need and want, whenever they want it, with minimal intervention.<\/p>\n

            Would users be willing to pay a premium for silence in a world full of noise? Of course. Just look at any ad-supported freemium service like YouTube.<\/p>\n

            This is the eventuality that I\u2019m talking about. Less noise, more signal.<\/p>\n

            SSO will become the accepted, and expected norm<\/h2>\n

            Users will have one account, and they will be happy about it. Gone will be the days of memorizing hundreds of passwords or relying on solutions like LastPass.<\/p>\n

            <\/p>\n

            https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/code-projected-over-woman-3861969\/<\/p>\n

            We will live in a world of biometrics, 2FA, and AI-driven identification which will span across every facet of our day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

              \n
            • Walk into a grocery store, walk out with items, it will be automatically deducted from the debit or credit card on file with your account.<\/li>\n
            • Go to a dental clinic; you\u2019re scanned, issues identified, service is rendered, and you walk out with either a payment plan, or with a receipt emailed to you; paid in full.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Your account in one place will be your account everywhere, as the power of data and user information consolidates within large-scale organizations and over-arching service providers.<\/p>\n

              In this new environment of unfettered access to user data for a small fee, products will die, and micro-services will flourish. Companies won\u2019t have databases, because they won\u2019t need them. Everything is stored as a property of the user within their master account, and data-breaches will become less and less prevalent as this data becomes more and more consolidated.<\/p>\n

              Applets will be the name of the game<\/h2>\n

              Everything will be an applet. Everything you could ever need or want will come pre-installed from the largest carriers and the biggest businesses and disruption will be met with acquisition or integration via micro-service.<\/p>\n

              <\/p>\n

              https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/anonymous-person-pressing-button-of-lift-3861787\/<\/p>\n

              You won\u2019t \u201copen\u201d an applet, it runs on your screen or in your viewport like a widget. It will take up only as much space as necessary, and it will automatically close when you\u2019re done with it.<\/p>\n

              All interactions will be disposable, all experiences will be shortened to create an environment that is the most conducive to one thing:\u00a0delivering outcomes, and executing transactions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Micro-services as a paradigm<\/h1>\n

              All of this, by the way, I say because micro-services will almost certainly not just become a normal pattern, but the accepted paradigm for businesses entering the market moving forward.<\/p>\n

              Why would a user download your app to give you the information to push the buttons to get the thing, when they could just pop open a widget and get the thing instead?<\/p>\n

              Nearly every new business or startup will be in the business of delivering results through micro-services.<\/p>\n

              And this will open up a world of possibilities<\/h2>\n

              Just like Amazon\u2019s Press-to-Order dash buttons, these micro-services will behave in much the same way.<\/p>\n

              <\/p>\n

              Amazon Expands Roster of Dash Buy Buttons<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n