A couple of weeks back we talked about designers going to great lengths to make high-tech products resemble obsolete products of the past. It was just one more of several posts we've done, and may well continue to do, on the divide between the technically inclined cognoscenti and, well, everyone else.

Today, however, we came across an example of a literally ancient device updated to the modern age. The idea of a kite-driven ship, which we learned of via Jack Moffett. Of course, this idea has the beauty of being a very easy sell because of its familiarity, simplicity, and the fact that it actually seems to work. It's the exact inverse of the problem that Richard Ziade discussed last week about certain Internet applications that, while effective, fail to pass what he calls "the mom test." As in "will my ___-year-old mom understand this product."

Ziade contrasts e-mail - which is very much like traditional mail - with more leading edge applications like OpenID and even relatively tried-and-true apps like RSS feeds. "RSS lacks a real-life sibling to help people understand its purpose and value," Ziande writes. "'It's like subscribing to a magazine' doesn't really cut it."

So, before designing a new product for the high-tech era, it's crucial for creators to consider not only whether or not the concept will work, but whether the technologically non-savvy will grasp its usefulness and, if not, just how and whether it's possible to educate users enough to grasp its benefits. Sometimes a not particularly ground-breaking product may be far easier to sell if it has a low-tech analog.

So much of the reason certain products sell has to do with our level of comfort. Consider the example of a product which we suspect is doing very well right now. The reason the Hamburger Phone is likely to sell a lot of units in the immediate future may have something to do with the luck of its placement in an unexpectedly popular Oscar-nominated comedy, but we also expect that the reason the product may perhaps continue to move units for a few years to come is that it combines two highly familiar products (i.e., hamburgers and phones) in a fun way - while being associated with the smart and likable soon-to-be teenage mother in Juno. The burger phone really passes the mom test.



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