Designers work with two types of products--completely new inventions and updates to existing products. Both can be catalysts for revolutionary changes in people's lives.

For example, Motorola produced the first handheld cellular phone in 1973. This invention changed the experience of voice and written communication for people worldwide. The first iPhone, a rethinking of the cellular phone, was introduced by Apple 34 years later, in 2007. The release of the iPhone marked another tectonic shift in the role of experience design in product and service development. 

As described in Chapter 1, Experience Design - Overview, in the iPhone and the products that followed it, physical and digital experiences were fused into a powerful, beautiful, easy-to-use, multipurpose personal device that could handle work, personal life, and entertainment. This, of course, also meant a blurring of the boundaries that separated the personal and private from the public and work related domains.

Concurrently, advances in computing and manufacturing led to the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is the idea that it is possible to collect and transmit data from and to any object, be it a car or an item of clothing, and make sense of this data using artificial intelligence.

These are early days, and many companies experiment with hyper-technologizing products and services in an attempt to improve experience. Some of these efforts may seem ridiculous today, but experimentation is the key to eventual advancement.

Take, for example, the "Oral-B Pro 5000 SmartSeries Dual Handle Power Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush with Bluetooth Connectivity Powered by Braun", (Yes, this is the product's actual name on the Oral-B website), shown in the screenshot above. In April 2017, its price on Amazon was $237.69. In May, the list price dropped to $159.99, with a promotional price of $97.92.

A set of three "Colgate Classic Clean Soft Bristle Toothbrush" (also shown in the preceding screenshot), can be purchased on Amazon for $6.80, or $2.30 per toothbrush. This simple product is 42 times cheaper than the Bluetooth product at sale price.

Each of the products offers a vastly different user experience. The bluetooth product benefits are as follows:

• Electric toothbrush with bluetooth communication between brush and smartphone provides real-time feedback on brushing habits, helping you achieve amazing results
• Floss action round brush head with micropulse bristles for a superior and interdental clean, which is not found in a regular manual toothbrush
• 3D cleaning action oscillates, rotates, and pulsates to break up plaque and remove more plaque along the gumline than a regular manual toothbrush
• Pressure sensor lights up the brush and the smartphone if you brush too hard
• Five modes--daily clean, gum care, sensitive, whitening, and deep clean

The manual toothbrush does not require charging, has no moving or electronic parts that can malfunction, requires very little space, convenient for travel, does not require an app, and keeps the daily routine of teeth-brushing simple and cheap. 

However, does the expensive hi-tech product actually clean teeth better than the cheap manual product? Perhaps a clue to this question may be the fact that the American Dental Association (ADA) grants its seal of approval only to manual toothbrushes, and the manual toothbrush mentioned above is one of the approved products. 

At the same time, it may be argued that the hi-tech brush provides considerable long term benefits because the device collects historical information about brushing frequency, use modes, and other habits. The collected data can help the user brush more efficiently and enjoy healthier teeth.

There is a growing number of devices that promise to track, collect, and analyze aspects of our daily functioning, mental states, and social interactions. This brings to mind a song by The Police, and it is becoming a reality:

Today, experience has become a major competitive edge and consequently also a strategic priority for organizations and companies. The implications for the role of design are illustrated in the following diagram:

In this model, experience emerges as the fusion of business, engineering, and design. All major entities are synced throughout the product development lifecycle to ensure a lasting and unified outcome. The radical twist, however, is this:

For example, if you own an iPhone 6 or 7 and you like the experience this product provides, you are likely to purchase iPhone 8 when you are ready to replace your device. The iPhone is not unique-- many products and services build long-term loyalty that persists across multiple generations of product evolution. Such continuous relationship with a product and brand over a consumer's lifespan (or a phase of it) can be seen as an emotional bond created through consistently satisfying and quality experience. 

The unified design process has two perspectives:

• A high-level product design perspective focuses on developing an overall experience strategy that would compel a target audience. Usually, the business side of the organization initiates these activities and engages experience strategists to envision a new or an updated product.
• A detailed product design perspective focuses on defining the product-specific experience qualities on the individual-user level. All design practitioners collaborating on the design share this perspective.