Where Does Your Significant Other Fall?

So I'm here in a hospital lounge.  Brought my trust Macbook Pro to pass the time (how else can you pass 6 hours in a waiting room?)  and what luck....WiFi access. 

My wife sent me an email to cheer my mood.  It was titled....Too Bad I'm Not One of the 3 out of 4 eh? 

What the heck are you talking about mip?!?!?  Ok, ok....it was a link to this article that provides the results of a study that shows that 3 out of 4 woman prefer tech over traditional things women would desire.

An Oxygen Network survey released Tuesday found that more than three out of four women said they'd choose the TV over a diamond solitaire necklace. Women preferred a top-of-the-line cellphone to designer shoes by a similar margin. And a little white iPod narrowly trumped a little black dress.

Hmmm.....so I married the 1 out of 4 who wouldn't choose a diamond necklace or shoes but most definite a box of gourmet chocolates (and what woman wouldn't). 

All kidding aside though, this got me thinking of an important aspect of technology.  Men get sold on features.  Women don't.  Why?  I think it is because women just expect technology to work!  I know quite often I'll say to my wife, "Come over here and let me show you how my new Mac can do this....blah blah blah...." and she'll simply reply "Isn't it suppose to do that?"   This is an important thing that computer manufactures, software developers and electronics companies need to recognize if they are to gain marketshare amongst women:  bells and whistles but poor user experience won't cut it because women just expect things to work. 

The article says "Advertisers are best served communicating lifestyle benefits of tech products by showing what's useful about them, rather than focusing on specifications" but I think it goes beyond just a marketing pitch....the tech products truly have to be useful!  And the only way that products can be useful is if they are designed to be user friendly.  They need to provide a positive user experience and add value.  Otherwise, what's the point.  Apple is a company that gets this right.  My wife loves to use my Macs...why....because they work the way she expects them to work.  When on a PC...she doesn't want to hear "oh to get the network to work you need to type ipconfig /release then type ipconfig /renew....blah blah blah".  No!  She just wants to turn it on and it see the network and that's it....you're on.  The technology can't get in the way.  I think that as women become target users (like men have all these years) we'll see a continued reshaping of products...and that'll be a good thing for all of us.

Now if you have any ideas on how I can get my wife to move to the 3 out of 4 women category...I'd love to know.

Comments

[Stephen]

"If all the world were the same as you and me, oh what a boring place it would be".

I think the real value is that we are different and have different points of view. The reality is that she is probably almost there, but as you are so there she does not need to focus on the tech as you do enough for all of us (LOL).

Clearly she gets it. It is about the resulting value, not the fiddle factor. Not sure what part of our guy dna makes us want to fiddle and tweak and so forth.

Interesting thoughts though.