{"id":53,"date":"2006-09-28T18:38:04","date_gmt":"2006-09-28T23:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lipsey.org\/jim\/2006\/09\/28\/product-design-aimed-at-limiting-user-capability\/"},"modified":"2006-09-28T20:33:34","modified_gmt":"2006-09-29T01:33:34","slug":"product-design-aimed-at-limiting-user-capability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/2006\/09\/28\/product-design-aimed-at-limiting-user-capability\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Design Aimed at Limiting User Capability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"image54\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/canon_g3d.jpg\" alt=\"The Canon G3\" \/>In product development, a great deal of effort is made in specifying a product&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Affordance\">affordances<\/a> &#8211; the capabilities and actions that it will provide to the user.  A product developer in the UK recently launched <a href=\"http:\/\/architectures.danlockton.co.uk\">Architectures of Control<\/a>, a blog that documents the increasing practice of infecting products with ways to restrict, rather than expand, users&#8217; capabilities. He has plenty of material to work with, from examples of planned obsolescence, to crippled software that forces customers toward more expensive options, to anti-skateboarding ribs that can be bolted all over public spaces.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nRecently Canon launched the G7 digital camera. The G series has been a flagship brand for Canon, aimed toward prosumers who aren&#8217;t looking to plop down $2000 for glass in order to justify a dSLR. When we bought a G3 four years ago, it was considered a ground-breaking model.  What does the G7 add to our model that is three generations old (they skipped the G4)? It has a higher resolution sensor that produces marginally better pictures because the smaller pixel size ads noise to the images. What else do we get by &#8216;upgrading&#8217;? The loss of a flip-out, rotatable screen, a slower lens, the removal of RAW support, shorter battery life, and the elimation of a remote control for family photos. All this for only $700. But it comes in a really nice black metal housing.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, too many people were choosing the G series over Canon&#8217;s dSLRs and the model needed to be crippled. Canon is removing affordances to drive a more expensive product.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Lockton <a href=\"http:\/\/architectures.danlockton.co.uk\/?p=117\">is seeking a better name<\/a> for <em>Architectures of Control<\/em>. My submission is to go with <em>Disaffordances<\/em>. The major domain names are even available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In product development, a great deal of effort is made in specifying a product&#8217;s affordances &#8211; the capabilities and actions that it will provide to the user. A product developer in the UK recently launched Architectures of Control, a blog that documents the increasing practice of infecting products with ways to restrict, rather than expand, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lipsey.org\/jim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}