Product Differentiaton and the Perception Utility Gap
As a product category evolves the changes that are made to new generations of a product will shift a person’s perception. A new generation of products will take advantage of technology improvements, design language changes and recent trends to advance elements of a product. These changed elements of a product signal the shift in perception. Subsequent generations of the iPhone got thinner after its initial release for several generations and then the screens got bigger for several generations. These changes clearly signaled old from new and an improvement from a user’s perception.
The trick is to not fight user perception directly, but the shift in user perception can hold the key for product differentiation. Making a thick smartphone while new smartphones are becoming thinner is a mistake even when a thicker phone may provide rational benefits such as better battery life and a better wireless signal. This is true even if users place battery life and wireless signal strength as important features for their next smartphone purchase.
In many cases the user perception is being shifted in a direction that sacrifices the potential utility of the new generation. This can occur because utility from the previous generation of a product isn’t reduced, but advances in technology are applied to increasing the perception shift instead of being applied to increasing or optimizing the utility of the product. This creates a gap between perception and utility that can be leveraged for product differentiation.
Perception Utility Gap — When a product evolves in a direction that increases end user perception but at the same time sacrifices the potential utility of the product
Let’s dive into a specific example that is occuring right now in the smartphone market. The popular smartphones that are launching this year are shifting to a more narrow screen aspect ratio. The new Samsung S8 has an aspect ratio of 18.5 : 9 where 18.5 represents the height and 9 represents the width. The new iPhone 8 is expected to have a similar aspect ratio. Most smartphones from last year had an aspect ratio of 16 : 9 and the original iPhone had an aspect ratio of 3 : 2 (13.5 : 9 to keep a common reference).
New technology has allowed the new smartphones this year to have smaller borders around the display and the most significant gains have been made by reducing the borders at the top and bottom of the screen (the forehead and chin). New technology is the enabler of the smaller border but it is a design and product decision unrelated to technology to move to a more narrow aspect ratio. All else being equal a narrower aspect ratio is less useful when we are comparing similar screen areas. A narrow screen is worse for almost all applications and at 18.5 : 9 there isn’t even an advantage for landscape video.
The aspect ratio doesn’t make sense from a rational analysis but the change is still absolutely the correct move for Samsung and Apple. They are the leaders and they are shifting the user’s perception. Going forward smartphones with a 16 : 9 screen will look out of date. This is exactly what the leaders in the marketplace should do, but the irony is this also creates the opportunity for product differentiation for other manufacturers.
Samsung and Apple are doing the right strategic move going to a more narrow aspect ratio because they are taking the new technology opportunity of smaller borders and applying it to the known formfactor that the user is comfortable with, they are just filling the front surface area of the phone with more screen. This provides the user with a bigger screen and the same form factor yet the perception utility gap increases at the same time.
When Apple introduced their 16 : 9 screen in 2012 they did that to provide more screen to the user while providing the same phone width to allow for one-handed use. After that Apple increased the screen size with a 16 : 9 screen sacrificing comfortable one handed use for a larger screen size. Again all these product decisions were the right choice for Apple at the time but each of these decisions increased the perception utility gap by fitting into current user expectations and not optimizing for utility at a system level.
Product Differentiation and how to take advantage of the gap
Fighting user perception is the wrong approach, you must reframe user perception. If we took advantage of the technology improvements and introduced a modern smartphone using a 3 : 2 screen we would create an odd smartphone that would look out of date. The approach needs to be packaged in a new configuration without a defined reference in the market.
This image compares the screens of the Samsung S8 and Samsung S8+ using an 18.5 : 9 aspect ratio with a Concept device using 3 : 2 aspect ratio. It is interesting to note that the screen area of a 5.8" 3 : 2 screen is larger than that of a 6.2" screen with an aspect ratio of 18.5 : 9. With this we can see that diagonal screen measurement is a misleading specification when we are comparing different aspect ratios.
Finding Opportunity
To close the perception utility gap we are looking for differentiation using a large 3 : 2 screen that defines a new visual reference and solves one handed use in what is a significantly wider screen. Here is how we do it.
Symmetry is created along a horizontal center line. Narrow screen borders are located on three sides of the screen.
The battery is located in a hinged module that sits flush on the back. To create a one handed grip the battey is rotated out of a cavity to sit on the other side of the back surface.
The phone can be rotated through 180 degrees to allow the user to grip it with either their left or right hand. Components are located across the horizontal centerline and may change roles depending on how the phone is being held. e.g. Speaker, mic, front facing camera, volume key function. Other components may be duplicated for convenience such as having a USB connector located both on the top surface and the bottom.
A fingerprint sensor is located in the middle of the back of the phone and a secondary one is exposed when the grip is deployed.
Several unique software implementations are also needed to work with this unique formfactor. The capacitive touch bar that is centered on the thick bezel will trigger a screen overlay near the thick border with the Android soft buttons. A one handed use mode can be triggered to scale the screen towards the grip and the thick border. The virtual keyboard in either right hand or left hand portrait will be centered on the device but consequently offset on the actual screen.
I hope I have provided some clarity to an innovation approach for finding relevant opportunities in product differentiation by tracking the shift of user perception away from utility in a design. Please post in the comments other examples of products that have evolved and created a Perception Utility Gap.
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