ITP Inspired Journal

Cloths pin fitness sensor

I must admit I like the promise of new products that use data capture to help me in my quest to improve my fitness.

Enter the “Fitbit”, a small clip-on sensor that captures all activity through out the day and night and uploads it to a web site for analysis. My first couple of weeks using the Fitbit sensor went pretty well, there is a docking stand and the charge capacity is good enough to last a few days and night of data capture.

I was amazed at how sedentary I was and just the act of looking at my total activity was a good motivator to get out and exercise. I have only good things to say about the Fitbit website and the functioning of the devise.

This is one case where the function takes the lead over form. The small devise is shaped like a small cloths pin and is made entirely of plastic, the design looks quite beautiful but it seems to have a flaw of functional duplicity.

Let me explain my take on product design and the interaction between visual affordance and consumer behavior. Some of my favorite designs are ones that need no manual or explanation; the visual appearance leads us to use the product as it appears and as our experience with other objects throughout our life prepares us for.

The appearance of the Fitbit says, “I am a clip, I am ready to be clipped on and used”, so why did this product come with an additional clip that clips to your cloths with the Fitbit clipped inside? I couldn’t really make out the reason for this duplication of design, so I sort of ignored the extra accessory. So why would an industrial designer design something might look as strange as the image I’ve put together below, I call this the “uncertain cloths pin”:

The Uncertain Cloths Pin

So the question of why would they design a product like this is the obvious one, why make something look and function like a clip then add what amounts to another clip to the product. All I’ve got is the possibility of design as after-thought. If the clip falls off, don’t redesign the clip; just add another clip along with it. Perhaps the plastic design loses it’s shape through wear and stress, or maybe it’s the smooth inner surface that has poor gripping properties…

It’s really too bad and something that I can see being addressed in future design, user and consumer testing might have prevented this design flaw but many companies don’t see the need to test before delivering to the public, and at about a hundred a pop there are destined to be a lot of Fitbits getting lost.

I’m a big fan of sharing resources and helping our planet, in fact I gladly gave up my car here in NYC and never again missed alternate side parking.

Enter Zipcar, the green friendly company (with a green logo) that will gladly put you in a car for as little as an hour and even pay for your gas. I’ve been happily “zipping” for a couple of years now… until last weekend when a my car reservation went missing and the car ceased to exist for several minutes.

When using a new service like Zipcar that requires cooperation and consideration you get used to rules that help keep that tragedy of the commons at bay(hopefully). You return on time, fill with gas, and even do a car wash. Building up my “carma” points I am mistakenly under the impression that Zipcar now views me as a good member and looks out of me, even that I have good carma coming back to me for all my kindness.

Last Saturday after having a van reservation for several weeks the following scenario transpired.

I show up at the garage where my Zipcar is suppose to be and give the attendant my card, he disappears and comes back moments later and informs me that the car was taken out earlier, since it was already early on Saturday I was puzzled that someone would only need it for about 90 minutes but who am I to say.

I waited until 5 minutes after my appointed hour and called Zipcar… the helpful customer service rep “Terry” told me that the car was indeed there, that it wasn’t taken out. I asked the attendant to look again but he was sure that it had left the garage. What ensued was a he said, they said game where Zipcar insisted that the car was locked and in the garage and the attended shook his head insisting the opposite.

For a time, Zipcar honestly couldn’t tell that another individual had been able to take my car with his Zipcar and just leave with it… they never could tell me why someone else could unlock my vehicle with their card. Two weeks earlier I had an attendant give me the wrong car, almost identical but not the vehicle I had reserved.

My understanding of the RFID is that you could only leave with the vehicle you reserved but in just my own experience there has been hardware “confusion” in assuring that I had the right vehicle and that my vehicle would be waiting only for me.

Zipcar was apologetic but not clear about why this happened… and I am not very pleased that there was no follow up on why. If you are an engineer with Zipcar I would very much like to speak with you about what your thoughts would be.

In any sharing arrangement there has to be trust and faith in the system to have people participate and give to the betterment of the group as a whole. There can be understanding that an individual can be late or even selfish but if the hardware that is meant to mediate or settle the competition for vehicles is broken in some way then it is difficult to not lose some respect for the system as a whole.

Hardware and software is cold and calculated and should not ever sway in it’s delivery of fair and equitable distribution of member resources, if it does it’s not a fluke to be glossed over but a bug to be worked out and eradicated. I do hope that I can get to the bottom of this as I really do respect Zipcar’s contribution to taking cars off the road. I am one of those who put myself in the hands of Zipcar.