Designing for the Self: Making Products that Help People Become the Person they Desire to Be

Comment on Patrick's blog.

In this paper, John Zimmerman designed six objects for use in the lives of everyday parents to help them become the parents they want to be. Through this, he hopes to discover how product attachment theory can be applied to design. This way, it would become easier to design products that people not only are comfortable using, but enjoy using.

Zimmerman created the following products for the study:

• a simple clock that uses a moon and a sun to tell children when they are supposed to stay in bed and when they can get up
• a digital picture frame that adjusts the pictures shown based on who is present
• a sports bag that notifies children if they don't have all the equipment they need for that day
• a calendar that keeps track of a child's medication and medical history
• a simple interface called Magonote through which anyone, including children, can operate several networked household devices.
• and a mobile zen application designed to keep Buddhists connected to their community

Zimmerman was then able to come up with six categories linked to product attachment: role engagement, control, affiliation, ability vs bad habit, long term goals and ritual. An example of role engagement/ritual is that the clock requires that the parent set it each night so that it becomes integrated into the goodnight routine and helps the parent focus on this one thing. This is analogous to the ritual bedtime story. Many parents develop an attachment to the bedtime stories they read their children. An example of ability vs bad habit would be the calendar. It helps the parent remain on top of things which presents a good image to their child.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what Zimmerman accomplished other than creating useful household items. Most of his explanation of how he believes the devices would fit into the six categories. He didn't seem to mention any experiments about these products though. I would like to see a user study done with these products to see if the owners really do become attached to these products.