While talking to my daughter earlier today, I realized how a bad user experience could ruin a product and/or brand across generations, and decades.
In our case, it was about a car maker. Around 10 months ago I bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. The vehicle has been an OK-kind of car, it is pretty solid and I can drive it on tough terrains, but its gas consumption is not that great, and a number of “miscellaneous” issues have popped up, for example, the A/C going bad, as well as window and door-handle issues. Enough issues to get my daughter's attention. To make the story short, she, who is 10 years old, asked me if I would ever again buy a Jeep (BTW, this conversation came out of the blue). I hesitated in answering, and I responded that I was not sure. But when I asked her the same question, she responded with a definite no.
So we are talking here about two back-to-back generations who will have reservations when considering a specific product or brand; for decades to come… That just blew my mind off, and how important is to bring to market a solid-enough product… Companies with deep pockets can use their cash to help buy time, but a new company won't have that luxury.
…because a bad user experience can span generations and decades, it is a very serious thing to address, it matters. A bad user experience is like it is traveling through a wormhole, and come back to hunt you for years as if it happened yesterday; not only can kill a specific product, but a whole brand, and company.
ceo
[Image:
Generations, a bronze sculpture by Ann LaRose of three generations.