The fad is the fashion
Technology is passé. Welcome to the brave new world of value concepts.
There’s this very funny video doing the rounds, in which a man is chopping vegetables on an iPad. I don’t blame uncle. In the context of the kitchen environment, it looks like a hi-tech chopping board. One of the things technology hasn’t done too well is keeping the older generation in step. It’s almost as if we’re telling them they ought not use modern devices.
When you think of it, there’s a serious issue about the way technology is careening out of control. Every few months they launch a new device. There’s this race to the bottom in trying to fuel our desire for mindless acquisition. Which would have been fine had there been a balance between features and value. But there really isn’t. The fad has become the fashion in tech circles.
On the other hand there are so many problems that technology can solve if only it looks their way.
Creating new stuff isn’t the answer here. It’s looking at everything available and creating value concepts by combining existing pieces.
And the worst thing to do is to ‘put old wine into new bottles’.
Let me explain.
Let’s take the case of mobile phones. They have two key capabilities that erstwhile devices did not possess. The first is location awareness and the other is real-time connectedness. Let me give you an example of the kind of thinking that prevails, in creating mobile apps, making some of the solutions we see around look like pranks. (By the way, it might be that even as you’re reading this, sms is already history.)
Here is an example of a mindset and a possible solution.
In the wake of the heinous Delhi Gang rape of December 2012, everybody started being concerned about women’s safety. The so-called thinktanks that advise the government (read corporate lobbies) thought up solutions that tried to marry their jurassic thinking with the state-of-the-art. Here check out how the Delhi cops tried to implement a helpline …
What’s the problem, you ask.
Well, simply put, the problem is usability. No, make that ‘total disregard for the user’. That’s better now.
So somebody came up with the idea that Delhi Police should be contactable in case a citizen wants to report crime against women. So the person must first know “where” to find this signboard. Then she must figure out which number to call or should stand around taking down the website and email addresses. And when it’s needed the most you’ll find this ‘important information’ MISSING! Because nature isn’t so kind to vinyl stretched over a flimsy frame. (I shot this picture just 3 months after the signage was first installed).
Why didn’t anybody think of a simple smartphone app that you could simply tap to report to the concerned authority? Why do you even need a number to dial? (Don’t we all dial names anyway). We all seem to know why. Yet we don’t care.
Is Delhi Police listening? Is Narendra Modi listening?
Talk to me. @sunilmalhotra
