the yogurt craze is here. in LA, it is primarily
Pinkberry and
Yogurtland, in nyc there are literally dozens of knock-offs lining every neighborhood. i think it has a little something to do with Americans wanting to be healthier, and these chains supposedly providing fat free sugar free frozen treats (that is, before you pile fat and sugar filled candies and fruits on your yogurt). in any case, this blog isn't about nutrition, it is about digital media. and there is much to learn from Pinkberry and Yogurtland when it comes to product design and user experience.
Pinkberry is the incumbent, Yogurt 1.0 (or maybe 1.5). you enter the store, it looks all well lit and modernly designed, but something about the product and service is just off. you go to the counter, ask for one of four egregiously overpriced sizes, then add a bunch of toppings. only at no point do you get to handle your dessert until it is fully prepared and served to you. and boy are they stingy with their sizes and topping portions. you ask for 3 toppings, or you ask for 1 topping, and they give you approximately the same weight of toppings. and you can only put up to 3 toppings on the yogurt (because it is too hard to squeeze an equal portion of 4 different toppings into any of their cup sizes). this experience is what I would call, NOT WIN. if i really just want a bunch of crumbled heath bar pieces and pineapple, with a little bit of pomegranate yogurt, i am shit out of luck. i get a full cup of pomegranate yogurt with like 3 pieces of heath and 3 perfectly even chunks of pineapple.
Now take Yogurtland. From the moment you walk in, it is all about the customer experience and providing choice. you can sample as many flavors as you want, and when you are ready to finally make the plunge and grab a cup, you can continue to experiment to your heart's content and get as much of as many flavors as you want. you then proceed to the toppings bar where you can continue to experiment to your heart's content and get as much of whatever combination of toppings as you want. granted, much like the end result when you build that bison burger with avacado and bacon and horseradish cheddar and bermuda red onions and hard boiled eggs with apricot sauce on a honey wheat bun at
the counter, your final concoction isn't always what you intended for it to be at the outset. but you have the full freedom to get exactly what you want, with nothing or no one to get in your way.
at the end of the day, if you are building a product or service for an end user, you can either think you know exactly what your customer wants and give it to them, or you can let your customers tell you what they want and offer them the choice to experience your product the way they want to. i personally believe it is always better to err on the side of giving the customers choice, and optimizing the customer experience. design your product or service in a way that allows users to create their own experience. there is no one right way to design something, but there is definitely one WRONG way, and that is where you decide what your customer wants.
Hello. My name is Jason, and here you will find some thoughts on the all things digital media, but with a focus on a couple of things i love: movies, music and games. I used to be a VC at FirstMark Capital in NYC, and now lead the International Publishing efforts at online game publisher/developer Riot Games in LA. It goes without saying, but all opinions found on this site are not representative of opinions of either FirstMark Capital or Riot Games. They are my own personal random rants.