Form vs Function
The battle shall go on for time immemorial as shall the debate of Designers vs Engineers, Women vs Men, Vaio vs Laptops, Cufflinks vs Buttons. While most would prefer to have both (form as well as function), constraints in the real world categorise products into having either one of the features and rarely, both.
Which one of the attributes is suitable and when? This is a dilemma most entrepreneurs have to deal with when making a mass audience (B2C) offering (product or service). The answer lies in understanding the Repetitiveness Factor at core-user-interaction levels. What do I mean by that? Simple. Let’s take the instance of a stereo system (big speakers, amplifier, sub-woofer, the works!). The user interacts with the system on multiple levels; at the first level he interacts with the system only visually – he glances at it as he passes by each morning and evening; at the second level he interacts with the system with a sense of touch – he rotates the knobs or presses the buttons on the remote; and finally, at the third (core) level he interacts with the system by listening to the quality of sound produced by it. Since, the user interacts with the stereo more repeatedly at the first level than at the core level, it is clear that the Repetitiveness Factor (Rp Factor) at the core-user-interaction level is rather small.
The solution is quite evident. On a broad basis, it would be sound advise to incline towards Form, if the Rp Factor at the core is lesser than the Rp Factor at any other level. And it would make sense to concentrate more on Function, if the Rp Factor at the core level is more than at any other level.
The explanation can be used to better understand the runaway success of Wii game console despite having stiff competition from contemporaries such as Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s X Box 360. Users interact with the Wiimote more repeatedly at its core level (they toss it, swing it, slam it, shake it, spin it) than at any other level; which is probably why the Wii console and the Wiimote look very simple & un-bevelled but pack quite a punch in the ‘function’ department. The same principle can be extended to understand the choice of Google during the launch of its search service (Hint: Function over Form).
As a closing note, I would request the reader to NOT employ this analysis during the prudent selection of a mate *winks*.
