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Everything as a Service

Over the past decade, the business world has had a real attraction to making everything a service. And rightly so. Would you rather struggle to repeatedly sell your product to the same customer? Or would it be better to offer it on a subscription model where you can keep improving it over time, and charge users a regular fee for using it?

However, if you compare the buying good ol’ products whenever you would need them, to subscription based services, a paradox seems to emerge.

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How About a Mass Behavioural Improvement before India’s 100th Independence Day

  The beautiful tri-colour waving at Connaught Place, Central Park, Delhi. It’s 75 years since India got Independence! A proud milestone for all of us Indians. Also one to reflect on and carefully choose the path forward. I happened to read a 75th Independence Day post on Instagram a short while ago, that took a…

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Mobile Apps and Habits

Pic: source If you are trying to create a new habit or trying to use a mobile app more regularly, you would obviously have better luck if you placed the app on the Favourites row. It could be a planner app, an e-book reader, a food-tracking or exercise app, or whatever else. But it is…

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The Hostile World for Women

The normal-seeming world of us men is often a battle zone that most women need to navigate each day.
Places and experiences we might not give a second thought about, can be horribly taxing on the attentional space of women.
We all need to educate, be considerate, and design safer and more thoughtful spaces and processes for them.

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Heel Rollers – Not a great Design

Image: source   Heel rollers, heel wheel skates, or heel wheels, have a fundamental flaw in their design.   If we humans were to pick between standing for a minute on the front section of our feet or the heels of our feet, odds are we would be more comfortable on the front section. The…

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Plastic Diet – Trying to Predict Big Pharma’s Next Big Thing

Image: source Since plastic is pretty much an inescapable part of our diets now, and since we humans are inclined to prefer selling/buying a solution rather than inconveniencing ourselves with rollbacks or preventive efforts, my prediction for big pharma is that their next big offering will be pills (or some other form) of supplements to…

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Product Design – Bottle Necks

I recently got some (plastic 😬) bottles for home. Not proud of it. But anyway, I noticed a small design anomaly with them. Normally, the neck of most bottles are only slightly shorter than their lids.   Now while these bottles are fine otherwise (except, plastic!), I wonder how many people who’ve bought them have…

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How the Future of Text Content Should Be

Pic: source As our attention spans go from low to almost non-existent in an increasingly noisy world, I get especially wary whenever I need to read a verbose report. Especially ones with unusually large paragraphs. You know it might be important, but just the way it is structured makes it very difficult to read to…

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Product Use and Experience – Range and Layers

There is a beauty to how some products (and software) are designed. Think scissors. If we want to cut something fast, we use the forward section of the blades (speed multiplier). Want to cut something fatter or tougher, use the rear end of the blades (effort multiplier); and cut slower, or risk breaking the scissors….

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Dettol Liquid Soap Refill’s Cap Seal Ring

Dettol liquid soap’s refill packs (above) have a small flaw in their cap seal rings. The tiny ring that stays on the refill pack (after breaking off from the cap), is not secured in place, and tends to fall into the soap dispenser. Lifebuoy liquid soap refills (above) on the other hand, seemed to have…