9 reasons for design failures & how to avoid ? Live case studies

Many times being a designer, we talk only about the design success and how the product really came out. This that. Right? So have you ever wondered how does a product really fail? What are the attributes for that? Hey Jagdish. So this is being very negative. This is being very optimal to really think upon both the sides. See guys, when our brain is really tuned into a way of thinking both the sides, we will see the real optimism lying in front of us. Okay? That's called the reality. So many times we'll be fantasizing, we'll be dreaming or we'll be too much going into one side to really enjoy the comfort zone. But that's not the case. Same like the magnet has two poles, which is north and south, which is attraction and repulsion. So the reality is also like that. So a design needs to be optimal in that way. How do you really secure, how did he safeguard and why? It is very important to understand the failure. There are lot many reasons for failures. Okay, so we will see about it little later in this podcast. But first let me tell you guys. See guys, I'll tell you one case study, okay? There is a product called Ford Pinto, okay, which was designed by Ford in 1971. You know what? The explosion of the fuel tank caused over 200 deaths. Highlighting the importance of safety and testing, prioritizing the user well being. This is very important. See, I'm not demeaning any brand or something, but this has happened and everybody knows it. And there is something called Google glass, okay, in 2013. The Ford Pinto incident was in 1971, okay, so the Google Glass was in 2013. There was a lot of privacy concerns, social awkwardness and there is only a limited functionality available for certain products. And what happened? You know what, the product got really out of the market and there were a lot of ethical considerations and it was a very, very case study which I can tell you how the product really miserably failed.

Okay?

There is something called Juicero, an expensive juicer which requires expensive parts. Turned out to easily hackable with man squeezing, okay? So people can use the regular thing with a normal squeezing itself. They don't need this particular high end product which is released in 2016. So this demonstrates a very good disconnect between design and the user behavior. So what does it really say? So a designer needs to really consider all the aspects when designing a product or else it will go into a miserable failure. And a lot of people don't understand this. They just want to see the one side of it and they don't Want to really design it. See guys, there could be lot of reasons for it. The very first reason which I'll tell you is neglecting user centered design. You know what, when you design a product you need to take user in consideration, okay? This is the one interesting article which I've recently read from my mind, my design minds, okay? It's a very good article which I found and they've really emphasized why neglecting user centered design really causes a lot of failure in your product.

Okay?

And the very important pain area, I'll tell you why a product fails, okay? Ignoring the functionality for aesthetic reasons and very very prominent guys. In fact I've recorded two podcast I believe in the earlier thing why it is very important to balance this aesthetics and functionality. Okay, see definitely aesthetics is important, definitely there is no doubt about it. But making sure how the part is really going to work, how the product is really going to functionally work, how the problem is going to really get solved. If that is not done, then no point in only focusing aesthetics, okay? This is a very terrible reason for the failure reason. The third is being behind the technological development. See if you are not able to cope up with the trend, your product will go away out of the market. What happened to the Nokia, what happened to the BlackBerry? We all know the case studies of it, okay, so BlackBerry really lagged in technology and they were not able to cope up in trend. And Nokia for same reasons not able to come in and cope in the market. And even though they are trying to come, but there's a very very what you call not a sustained growth for them which happening same like what Google, Samsung, Apple and other products are doing in electronics market.

Okay?

The other reason is lack of comprehensive market research. See this is very important and particularly freshers designers who are starting up, they don't understand this point, they just do product, they just do concept, they just design. But nothing in keeping in mind what is a risk assessment, what is a real market study, what is the competitive telling, how is the benchmarking studies going to give us some insights and what is our sales and marketing really telling about it? And you won't really go and talk with your cross functional teams to really get this understanding to do. Because if you're not open enough to receive this feedback, your product will miserably suffer and it will fail and your user is not going to enjoy any benefit out of it.

Okay?

So remember guys, even if you make an excellent product which is functional, which is usable, which is aesthetically good, end of the day your customer is not going to really get benefit. And the problem is really not solving it. Your product goes in vain. Your product goes in toss, your entire investments goes in vain. And you know what? 95% of the startups really fail in the market because of the lack of comprehensive market research done. Nobody tells them how to do research. Nobody tells them how to arrive the insights and check whether the market is there or not. They're very impulsive and they invest in the product service. That's why only 5 percentage or less than industries really survive after a year. In one year, 95% of the startups fail. Guys, this is because of this reason.

Okay?

So over complicating design. This is another reason. So simplicity often is very, very, very important. Guys, less is more. Dieter Ramps, one of the best designers they call, okay, he tells that and the Bauhaus movement and the Bauhaus principles of design, you can read about that. So they talk about only simplicity, what is required, what is minimal, what is functional. Just put it, ignore the remaining part of it. Because they only believe on the simplicity. So if you over complicate it, user will get overwhelmed, User will really not get the point. Why is this button here? Why is this particular interface here? What is the meaning behind it? Overcomplicating will not tell a story for the user. Underestimating the prototyping power. People don't do the testing, people don't do the prototypes. And there is judges wanted to launch the product overnight and make a profit. How does it really happen? Product designers really have to get a great benefit from prototyping. Before we hit the market. It is very vital to find the problems, the pain areas, the difficulties, what our customer is really facing by various amount of tests, feedback before going into the market.

Okay?

The other important reason is insufficient sustainability. Nowadays sustainability is a very crucial component. Guys, people really don't understand this. They, they take consideration of only the user and they forget of the environment. So end of the day it's all about the circular economy and how our design is really going to make an impact. Even when people are designing websites and applications, they're called, they're calling it as a carbon free website, previously it used to be only for the products, right? So imagine the kind of impact what you're creating by your design is very important, okay? And disregarding the feedback of the customer, sometimes user really, I mean sometimes users are really very brilliant in giving the feedback. But the designers are not tuning in that frequency to empathize and receive that because they wanted to carry away with their design. They wanted to take consideration of their own concepts. They are romanticizing too much on their concepts. They don't want to take the customer input. This is one of the major pain point which designers really have. And people don't get into that cocoon out of the cocoon because of lot many reasons. Okay, so let me recap you what is the reasons guys, neglecting the user centered design. Second is ignoring functionality or aesthetics. Third is lacking behind the technology. Fourth is lack of comprehensive market research. Fifth is over complicating the design. Six is underestimating the prototype power and testing. Seventh is insufficient sustainability. Eight is disregarding the feedback of the user. And this is the major major concerns when it comes to rapid failing of the thing. Okay, so accessibility is also another reason guys the ninth important reason I'll add you okay so designers really neglect the users with disability and they face the public backlash because of this and legal challenges. And there's another reason also data privacy concerns. Products collecting and using the user data without transparency or control face privacy regulations really make a big mistrust. You know chat GPT initially did not went into the industry segment is because of this reason. Now they have made an enterprise version down. They are getting into the big market. But the thing is it was not right. So imagine the importance of why people are really telling this.

Okay?

And you need to really understand more carefully guys. Because design failures are rarely reported systematically. Companies often try to avoid this negative publicity also. But user might not formally complain because of this reasons. Okay, so data exists in a very scattered news articles, social media sentiment and internal reports. But let me tell you three case studies what I told you no five case studies have told you just reflect on top of this why a product is miserably failing and how you can be mindful enough to solve it. Okay, so thank you so much guys for staying tuning in this podcast. If you find this useful, give me a best star rating in Spotify and Apple. And if you need further episodes to be continued, you can hit that subscribe button and you can get notified for the further episodes. Take care. Bye bye. All the best.