Durable products
I wore my Olukai Mahana slippers all day every day for 3 years. They finally got beat up enough that when my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said that I’d welcome a new pair of slippers.
Christmas morning arrived and I opened my gift from my wife and daughter containing…a brand new pair of my exact same slippers. I was elated.
This in my opinion is what any product company should strive for. Make useful things for people. Make them high-quality and durable. Make them so that if and when a thing wear down, people will want to replace it with the exact same thing. Repeat the cycle.
Of course there are different dynamics and incentives at play. Capitalism leads to consumerism leads to planned obsolescence and cheapening and instant gratification and junk. This is why there’s so much shit in the world.
Designing things that last a long time — perhaps even multiple human life spans — is not a distant pipe dream; it’s very much a reality. I cherish the hammers, wrenches, and other tools I inherited from both of my grandfathers. I’d bet money that if my daughter ends up having kids she can pass those same tools down to them and they’ll still function exactly as intended.
Of course I can’t help but apply this thinking to the digital world. We should approach our digital work with this mentality, but we don’t think this way. Well, pretty much everyone except my friend Jeremy Keith, who has been evangelizing resilient web design and longevity for many years. The websites he maintains I think are now old enough to rent a car, and they are still so incredibly valuable. Any musician who plays Irish music knows The Session and finds the website so helpful. Jeremy’s been diligently making modest improvements to his websites for years, building upon incredibly strong foundations.
So yeah, I think that’s what digital products should strive for. Make useful things for people. Make them high-quality and durable, like a good pair of slippers. Make them so they stand the test of time. Repeat the cycle.