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If you are designing a product, it is tempting to focus on the core of your product only. However, a lot of successful user experience innovation has been done around the core product. Here are some examples:

  • If you are designing a mobile device, you can create user experience innovation by providing great tools for your PC or the Internet that can be used to extend or support the user experience of your device. You will look at successful service providers and maybe ask permission to use their services.
  • If you are designing a social web page, you can look at how to integrate services from other web pages, or you can make it very easy for your customers to transfer account data, friend lists, and so forth from a competing social web page. You can also look at how to integrate your services in a great way for mobile devices.
  • If you are designing video conversion software, you could look at how to download alternative subtitles from the Internet and how to easily connect your computer to a TV.

The trick is to not limit your definition of your product to the actual product itself; rather, you should see your product as whole ecosystem.

Anecdote

When the Apple iPod was launched in 2001 (see Figure 12-1), it got a lot attention due to its design and the basic user experience of the product itself, but it did not become really successful until the entire ecosystem (e.g., with the iTunes music store and the iTunes PC application) was put into place in 2003. My view is that the real reason for the success of the iPod was the superior user experience of the ecosystem that was built around the iPod.

Most competitor music devices at that time supported a USB connection. However, buying and transferring music was a cumbersome process. The process was also cumbersome if the user wanted to convert and transfer her existing CD music collection to the device. The iPod and the surrounding ecosystem removed all those pain points.

Apple's ecosystem has over the years and with the introduction of the iPhone and iPad been successfully extended by Apple to cover applications as well as music. The ecosystem is highly successful now, and includes movies, games, music, lifestyle and productivity applications, and so forth. A large part of the success of the iPhone, not least when it comes to application downloading, is due to Apple's existing and (for the users') well-known and appreciated ecosystem.

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Figure 12-1. The first iPod

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