Product Design: Good vs. Great
A reflection through my own addiction to Airbnb in the past five years
Lately I’ve been pondering on what differentiates a great product from a good one for my Designlab project. Here I’ve put together some thoughts, reflecting through my own addiction to Airbnb in the past five years. (despite what happened to the company this year, but at least the IPO is finally happening, woohoo!)
A good product serves its functions, a great product creates additional values
Like physical products, a digital product serves both tangible and intangible functions. A good product is the one that solves the problem it’s designed to solve, often a more tangible task. A great product however, can solve problems on a higher, intangible level, such as serving certain social purposes. Take Airbnb as an example, on the tangible level, it solves my problem of finding a physical place to stay when I travel; on an intangible level, it allows me to explore local culture by interacting with my hosts and even maintaining some of the friendships afterwards. In that respect, the product is adding much more value to the trip beyond the room itself.
A good product provides easy navigation, a great product creates a journey for people
To qualify as “good”, a product has to be at least easy to use. A smooth interaction flow is essential to ensure a pleasant experience for people so they will visit back. A great product, however, empowers people to be the protagonist of their own narrative by creating a journey for them. Again take Airbnb as an example, it not only allows me to book a place or a local experience easily, it also makes the booking process itself an experience of wanderlust. When I’m browsing through the listings and reading through the descriptions written by the hosts, it feels like I’m visiting local people’s houses and gaining a glimpse into their everyday life. In that respect, Airbnb allows my journey to start at the planning stage since it visualizes the sense of excitement of what I would encounter in my trip even before it starts.
A good product complements people’s life, a great product becomes part of people’s life
A good product makes people’s life better by complementing certain aspects of it, addressing problems that need to be solved. A great product however, becomes an essential part of people’s life. That’s why some products existed for a while but were replaced shortly after, while a small number of products became necessities, even cultural phenomenons. Again using Airbnb as an example, while I started out using it as a helpful tool to book my trips, it now becomes an essential part of my travel experience. Its shared economy model enables me to experience a sense of community which changes the way I travel, adding more depth to the journey. That’s probably why I almost never stayed in a hotel again ever since I started using airbnb five years ago. The product has become part of my identity as a cultural traveler.
Image source: https://design.studio/work/airbnb
