Wow Factor

Every company has an opportunity to delight customers with great products and services, though most companies fail to figure out the right ingredients. And most companies will continue to repeat the same failures. Why? It’s not only difficult to change patterns, it’s even harder to build teams that get great product development. Great products and services don’t have to be flashy, expensive or complicated, but they do need to touch us in ways that enrich our lives, save us time or stimulate our emotions (those aren’t features- they’re ideas- and those ideas are what make us crave more). In our design thinking process at ZURB, we call those wow factors- our successful clients have embraced this pursuit of “wow”.

When we think of “wow” products, the iPhone pops out based on its beauty, appeal, and ease of use (whether perceived or real). Apple figured out that by creating a phone that appealed to our desires and senses, we would rush to buy it. And buy it in droves we did. So how did Apple capture the wow factor? It started with the catchy ads, the in-store displays and packaging. Before even using the product, Apple had us hypnotized into waiting into lines. But that’s just a small part of the entire experience- where they delight and surprise us is in the ease of set-up, the simplicity of use and the sensation of holding the product (that functions as well as it looks). It’s a pleasure to use. It’s a wow.

If you’re a company trying to build something great, don’t be discouraged by how overwhelming it is to create a product like the iPhone. There are tons of great products and services that solve routine tasks that are pleasures to use. Remember that favorite pen? Keep thinking about everyday products that make life a little easier: sliding zip-lock bags, dishwasher pellets, velcro, and sticky notes. These all have wow factors.

Finding the wow factor shouldn’t be an elusive quest. Spend some time figuring out the pain points of your customers, empathize with their struggles and observe their behaviors. If you have an existing product, reevaluate the business goals and look for new opportunities to delight your customers. Find the core elements that shape your product or service- doing so will help insure a prosperous venture.

See it in action:

Wow factors don’t always have to look pretty. Two of our clients, Photobucket and Playlist.com, figured out that solving simple user problems would attract new users in droves. Playlist.com helps users search and find music to play on the web (in July 2008, Playlist.com was signing up new users at an alarming rate of 50,000+ users a day). The site isn’t pretty, but it gets the job done in spite of some of the usability problems (ZURB is working to solve some of these issues).

Photobucket figured out early in its development that it wasn’t enough to provide space for images- users needed a way to put them on their Myspace pages. When ZURB started with Photobucket, they’re pages weren’t pretty, but they did stay focused on helping people link their images. The wow factor of uploading images for use on other sites kept users happy. And for Photobucket it was a smart decision to stay focused on this ‘wow’ factor as other photo sharing sites shunned the idea- user adoption soared to 100 million accounts. They were rewarded with $300 million when Myspace purchased them in 2007.