A Reflection on Product Design

MK Gerdes
MK Gerdes
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

It has been said that I am a Queen of Useless Knowledge.

Some may take this an insult; I consider this moniker a source of great pride. Why yes, I can tell you the Academy Award winner for Best Actress in 1963 (Anne Bancroft), how many nominations she had in total (5), and who she was married to (Mel Brooks). Do you want to know about physics? Organic chemistry? French literature? I’m not your girl, but if you play, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and there is a question about movie trivia, I’m your phone-a-friend.

How did I obtain this level of knowledge? Very simple: IMDB. When tasked with finding a digital tool that I could not live without, it was IMDB. I use it every single day — watching TV and movies, or just killing time in the checkout line at Target.

But, like so many digital tools we use every single day, I think that we sometimes take for granted that the tool is used frequently because it is designed well. What makes IMDB a good product?

If you follow some of the commonalities of good products outlined in the Designlab course lecture, you will see that IMDB hits the mark:

  1. IMDB emerged from a coherent strategy. IMDB started out as a Usenet list of actors, actresses, and directors, eventually morphing into a searchable database that pre-dated the web. At its inception, Col Needham wanted to create a list of all of the movies he had seen, and it eventually grew as others added to it. [1]
  2. With over 250 million unique site visitors per month [2], IMDB is popular because it’s user-friendly and it works, allowing it to respect a user’s time and effort. Search is effortless, information is kept up-to-date, with the integration of video and e-commerce, it has become nearly a one-stop-shop for all things related to movies and television.
  3. IMDB is easy to learn and consistent in its use. While features and functionality have been added, the site is intuitive, and has remained relatively unchanged over the course of the last several years.
  4. IMDB is adaptable. It interacts with users, allowing for people to make changes to their profile, updates to movie listings, and submissions for trivia and other aspects of TV and film listings.
  5. IMDB is responsibly made. As a part of Amazon, the site is developed and maintained worldwide.

While others have a specific preference for their digital tool of choice, I ask you — if someone comes to you and asks you who Joan Fontaine’s sister* is, and offers you a million dollars for the correct answer, what tool will you use?

*It’s Olivia de Havilland :-)

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