User generated products: will we all need to become designers?
Posted by: Fidji SIMO in Internet/Technology
I have a passion for things and sites allowing a maximum level of personalization (hence my interest for avatars, you may have noticed ;-)). So logically I am also really interested in personalized products, the symbol of them being Tshirts.
When I analyze the market of user generated Tshirts, I notice that the trend is towards more and more personalization. If you are deprived of design skills as I am, then basically you can vote for great designs and choose the one you prefer (Threadless); at the next level you can propose a slogan (Threadless again), or you can mix multiple designers’ items to create your own unique shirt (Innertee), or you can submit your idea to find a designer to create it (ThoseShirts), finally you can create your own products with your own designs or pictures even if you have absolutely no talent (Zazzle).
But what strikes me most in this trend is that at the end, if we want a beautiful AND highly personalized T-shirt or mug, then the best is having design skills by ourselves! All the previous websites are trying to reduce the need of having own design skills by connecting users’ needs with designers’ talent, and that is amazing, but every time I go to Threadless I can’t help thinking “this shirt is great, but the design would have been better in purple, with a little slogan here, and a little angel there”. In a word, to be fully satisfied with my purchase, I would like the maximum level of customization, and even if it is exactly what those sites are trying to provide, it will never be the same than creating your own design by yourself. To be sincere I get more and more frustrated not to have design skills, and I will probably buy the book Design It Yourself (image of this article) which try to help dummies like me to acquire basic skills.
So what are your expectations about “customized products”? Is the trend of personalization going on in the Internet tends to push you to develop design skills?
Entries (RSS)
I like to customize but I prefer customization when it’s smart.
Sometimes, some people customize their stuff a way too much… I have in mind some tuned cars which are usually ugly, dangerous and out of law.
But I really always liked customisation. E.G. for my blog, I can’t imagine having the same webdesign as another one
1) You are definitely right about the dangers of “over customization”. I recently ordered a pillow with a picture of my holidays on it, and sincerely it was just kitsch!
2)I also love customization, and would love to have a different template for my blog, but again, how to make a cool design such as the one you have with no design skills? I have the impression that to make something great (product, blog, content in general) it become an absolute “must have” to be a good designer.
[...] A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the fact that, with customization trends, everybody will soon need to develop design skills to make the most of user generated products. In my vision, designers were really powerful because they have the required skills to benefit completely from this new trend. But recently I read another article of Etienne Mineur (in French, but I will explain it here), which basically says that designers are becoming less and less powerful, especially since new templates and applications allows amateurs to control design without having design skills. [...]