Why knowing your user can help your bottom line
Elizabeth Mauer - Former Staffer / Design Research / Ergonomics / User ResearchOnce upon a time, I convinced myself that I could learn to rip out my old floors and install new ones.
I grew up very traditionally where girls vacuumed (boring) and boys got to work with power tools (fun). So I never learned the ins and outs of what I generally call “being handy with tools.” I figured I could learn, though. Since they sell power tools to the general population at many home improvement stores, how hard can it be to use them? (Especially if the store’s motto is, “You can do it, we can help.”)
After many, many trips to the store and way too many hours sweating, I have developed the following theory:
If you design power tools for women properly, men will buy them too. And guess what? They will secretly thank you and buy more of your products.
Let me explain. If you are a girl and you go to a home improvement store, this will probably sound familiar. You go to your local home improvement store, armed with a shopping list (of course). You’ve done your research on the web for what you want and you are now in what you hope is the right aisle looking for it. (PS — why does it take so long to find what you want in those aisles anyway?) As you are scanning, a salesperson approaches and asks if they can help you find something. When you ask them where that something is (“where can I find a rubber mallet?”), they politely show you. Then it happens: sometimes they will show you the tools specifically designed for women and recommend them to you. In the case of the rubber mallets, it is a rubber mallet with a pink handle that is the same in every way to the other mallets. But it’s pink! Girls love pink, right?
source:outblush.com
Why tool companies do these things is beyond me. My only guess is they broke the all-important golden rule of successful product design: Know Your User. It’s so important to successful design that it gets capitalized. Sometimes companies interpret this rule to mean something like this: “Well, I know our users. Who doesn’t know a person who is a woman? They like pink. Let’s make our tools pink. They will love it, flock to our stores, and unload their paychecks to us. And we won’t have to spend money learning about what they want because we already know.”
That line of reasoning is very tempting to companies that are trying to cut costs. However, it usually is more of the penny wise – pound foolish type of thinking and can contribute to low sales. (Can you guess how many pink tools I purchased?)
Here’s a better approach to solving the problem of making tools specifically for women:
Ask them what they want. What are their complaints about tools on the market? Watch them use your tools and your competitors’ tools. See where they are having trouble. Have them try out your new tools. Look up the anthropometric data on women and use it when designing your tools.
Although color might be mentioned in passing, I bet women would overwhelmingly tell you the following:
- Tools are in general too heavy. I can’t lift a tool that weighs so much for long periods of time and maintain good control over it. Do you need to have huge biceps to use most tools?
- Tools require very strong hands and fingers to activate controls. The force required from my fingers to press down a button on many tools is too high.
- Tools require large hands to control and manipulate accurately and safely. The hand grips on many tools are made for someone with hands that are larger than my head.
Let’s say a tool company took those three suggestions to heart when designing their next line of tools. Now their tools are lightweight, less tiring to use, and perhaps have adjustable hand grips that can fit smaller hands (for example). In conjunction with a nice marketing campaign, that is something that would get the attention of women. When tools are all well-designed, companies can offer them in a variety of colors.
When you think about it, there is a huge opportunity to market these tools to men now too. Wouldn’t most men like those improvements? Not that men would want to appear un-manly (of course), but if a tool is lighter and less tiring to use, then they can work longer and be more productive with less risk of repetitive stress injury and pain. And those are very manly benefits that translate to your bottom line.
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