The Things of the Future - Talk from Build 0.7

Cennydd Bowles is a freelance digital product designer based in the UK. You can read his blog here.

Do you contribute to the digital landfill? Are we creating products that really add genuine value, both to the users and businesses involved? At the 2011 CES, about 20,000 consumer electronics products were launched. Helen Walters, whom, Cennydd Bowles quotes in the start of his talk, remarked: “20,000 products isn’t responsible. It’s vandalism.”

The level of consumerism and corporate timidity we have engaged in in our recent history has no future, Cennydd says. The major audiences are increasingly disillusioned with businesses of all stripes (some industries more so than others, as seen by #OWS at the time of writing this). Secondly, the disruptive mobile media are available to everyone, increasing transparency. And thirdly, the world seems to have changed in terms of economy and ecology, and this is the world we will need to develop products in, and importantly, deliver value in.

As the world changes, the product design principles will need to change too. They must be human, Cennydd says, not only in messaging but in their entire experience and in their place in the human life. We need to tackle the wicked problems – problems that do not have an immediate answer that we can create a widget to solve. And in order to create genuine value, we should make fewer but better products. Total Value = Business Value x Customer Value. “If either one of these is zero, you’re wasting your time,” Cennydd says.  

Ending with a short e.e. cummings poem, Cennydd challenges us to concentrate on real human value. Watch the thought-provoking talk for the whole story.

Head to Passion Meets Momentum for more expert talks from HackFwd’s Build events.