Design: Agency vs Utility

####BEFORE YOU START, READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Designing for Agency is the world's next step in progressing through the digital age. Instead of optimizing for maximum user engagement, user agency is about minimizing time spent engaging to get the maximum value out of your product.

Imagine a microwave designed to maximize the time the user needs to interact with it in order to get what they want - heated food. The microwave would send you notifications to use it, instead of cooking with fire, and the more you use it the more points you get, which you can redeem for amazon groceries and free delivery.

Or imagine a chainsaw that awards you points for every second you use (interact) with it. the longer you take to saw wood, the more points you get and you can redeem it for fuel. Then the optimal chainsaw is one that takes the longest to saw through anything at all.

Each of these products would enhance our ability to make decisions and manage our lives without disrupting or dictating our actions. They would leverage the power of the web to deliver utility while offering us the agency to use them as we see fit. - Jesse Weaver

They would leverage the power of the web to deliver us Agency to use them as we see fit

And how do we design with the express intent to deliver agency, instead of mere utility?

What is Utility

something that provides the user value.

What is Agency

something that provides the user value, while not demanding time from the user while using it.

does not require user to spend more than minimum time on the product in order to achieve the perceived utility.

presupposes the product's understanding of the user's routine / customer journey.

is closely related with the time taken by the user to interact with your product.

Designing for user agency (steps required)

1. plan the customer journey / understand the target demographic's routine
2. identify time slots that fit the customer's routine
3. identify where the product fits into the customer's routine
4. identify the product's perceived utility for the customer
5. identify the products requirements for data from the customer in order to achieve the stated utility
6. design the product, optimizing for minimum time required for user to get what they need
7. [optional] if time taken to achieve utility is too long, design product to be able to be used and paused halfway and pick it up with minimal mental overhead

A product suceeds

when the product:

1. provides its stated utility to the user while
2. allowing user agency (empowerment in the form of choice to use it, stop using it, and pick up from before with minimal mental overhead), and
3. achieves its utility in minimal time (minimal time needed for user attention, not actual time to process)

Some examples from the article

• a web-enabled umbrella whose handle glows blue when it’s going to rain so you remember to take it with you. It’s a common device made magical with some basic web intelligence.
• a wallet that gets harder to open the closer you get to your budget limit.
• an alarm clock that changed color based on the predicted temperature for the day, so you knew how to dress without opening an app?
• a watch that monitors traffic patterns and vibrates to let you know when you need to leave to make it to an appointment on time.
• A piece of luggage with a handle that glows to notify you if your flight is delayed.

More Awesome notes from the article

As digital product designers, here’s what we need to rethink:

1. How users’ roles are viewed in the life cycle of products. If the value of a product is predicated on its users’ activity or resources, then those users are not customers, they are business partners.
2. Data collection, manipulation, and transparency. We need to center the user — not the business — as the owner of their data.
3. The drive for continual engagement. Intentionally hijacking human psychology in order to hook people is a predatory business practice. We need ethical standards for how we manipulate people’s behavior.
4. Revenue models. Business models that depend on a given level of user engagement are unsustainable.
5. How content creators are compensated. A platform alone should not profit from the creations of its users. Algorithms and artificial intelligence. We need ethical standards for how we manipulate what a person sees.
6. The role of our products in the lives of our users. Our products are not the center of a person’s life; they are only a small part of it.

####ONCE AGAIN, THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE