Tangerines
This last week, we had two types of tangerines in our fruit bowl. One was wonderfully juicy and sweet. The other kind was enjoyable, but not nearly as succulent as the first kind. I ended up finishing off our stock of the second kind first. Why? Because they were really easy to peel.
Yes, I know. This is a fairly trite example and really, how important is it that I can peel one kind of tangerine 20 seconds faster than the other kind? Well, important enough that I ate them all first and I go to the store looking to buy the easy to peel kind and not the other. That’s 10 seconds vs. 30 seconds of peeling!
So imagine that the taste of the fruit is the feature. It’s what the customer eventually consumes. It needs to be promising enough that the fruit is an attractive purchase, but it doesn’t need to be the best. What it does need is easy access. By making the innards significantly easier to access, the growers can sell me a fruit that is whole lot more enjoyable, even if it’s a little less tasty.
That’s what a great user experience is all about.
Update 6/5/08:
Apparently, lots of other people agree with me.