What is Steve Jobs bias?
In: 51
Giving the user what you think they gonna use vs giving the user some choice:
“Example: iPhone thinks that it must help me to manage my sleep, this will set an alarm in the morning and one in the evening to make me aware when to sleep and when to wake up, and this is set to be the same everyday or having a weekly schedule. You can’t easily turn it of and it resets on at the slightest touch. You can’t miss your sleep thanks to this automation”
Vs:
Me, user: I WORK SHIFTS AND HAVE TO RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES, With a schedule that varies day by day hour by hour. MY SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED BY APPLE DESIGN.
You see how this bias is backfiring onto users experience.
In short; it’s a “I know better” bias
The Steve Jobs bias is thinking the gap between how you envision users will use your product – and how users actually use your product is lower as opposed to reality
In other words you think you understand how your customers will use your product, when you really don’t.
The trap in industry is giving consumers only what they think they want. Building a product based on customer suggestions and seeing how they use it, vs you telling them how to use it.
The most successful products are those that innovate new ideas and drive the market, while products that customize themselves to suit specific requirements of customers are doomed to obscurity.
That was one of the secrets of Steve Jobs and Apple’s success is they didn’t sit around waiting for consumers to show them direction on a product, they steered consumers in the direction Apple wanted to go.
Don’t build a cellphone based around how people are using it now, build the device and interface that you want people to use instead. Don’t build a better flip phone because that’s what everyone is used to, build a smartphone that will change how they use the device entirely. Now everyone and their dog owns a smartphone and flip phones have gone the way of the dodo.
As an example of this, he said that most people would have told Henry Ford they wanted a faster horse not an automobile. The story of him being fired by Apple and then returning to save it from bankruptcy is an excellent example of this.
One of the most important principles in UX design explains it perfectly. When designing a product, you are never the user you’re building the product for. Steve Jobs Bias implies that we design with our own thoughts and feelings in mind.
It’s the perception that folks that wear turtlenecks and glasses are decent people instead of vulturistic, conniving, greedy capitalists that abandon their familial obligations.
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