Fast Company has a very insightful article on customer-driven research & development at AT&T Customer Expectations Research Lab. A group of 40 PHDs are in search of fundamental truths about ways in which people adapt to new technologies. Physicist Greg Blonder has this to say about new technologies and how customers react to it when they were introduced:
- When the typewriter was first introduced, most people recoiled at the idea of communicating in a medium that seemed to offer no insight into the writer's style or personality!
- When the answering machine came along, people dismissed it as cold and impolite.
Social context is only one of the tests Blonder, Muller, and Isenberg apply to help determine whether and how quickly people will adapt to new technologies. "Observability" and "tryability" are two other factors. One reason new models of athletic shoes catch on quickly, Blonder says, is that everyone can see them on the street. In contrast, things like computer memories are difficult to market because people tend to use them in private.
While Blonder looks at history, Muller is applying anthropology. She's sent pairs of researchers to dozens of sites -- including a bank in San Paulo, a charter school in Minneapolis, an engineering firm in San Francisco -- to see how the Net is changing the way people work.
From these disjointed observations, Muller and her team hope to match the changing nature of work with new products designed to support it.
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