The Superfriends and a Pegasus hop into a Weeble Wobble Camper…

Walking by the kid’s toys that invariably are played with in their play room, aka our bedroom, I ran into this collection.  My daughter had decided that her brothers’ Superfriends had to hit the road but also thought the Pegasus should join the party.  And why take the Bat Mobile when you can take a Weeble Wobble Camper?  Makes sense to her and I guarantee that Fischer Price and Mattel didn’t plan for this road trip.  The best part is that the super heroes fit pretty well in the Camper. Bat man was chilling in the back.  Superman looked a bit stiff, but it was a ride so he wasn’t complaining.  Out of this little collection a couple ideas related to user experience and design occurred to me.

Sometimes you have to let go

I don’t see why we don’t pile in Green Lantern, SuperMan, Batman, throw in a Pegasus and hit the road in a Weeble Wobble Camper.  Let me rephrase that.  I don’t see why we are not taking our materials, content, sites, issues and just ripping them apart into components and approaching them from another angle when we have a problem or need to update materials.  Or why are we only working through issues in a prescribed manner that everyone has touted as the right way to do the job?

If you’re site is just stuck in the ruts and you know you have great content but it’s just not catching hold, what’s the problem?  This might be a case to throw in a Lalaloopsy into the mix!  Totally change up the approach to solving the problem; change the layout, repackage or update the materials?  Maybe.  But whatever you choose, do it completely different than any way you might have done in the past. Will it work, I don’t know.   Your stakeholders, boss or clients may look at you strange or even a little concerned to go off the beaten path, especially if you walk in with a  Lalaloopsy doll that you drop on the table and proclaim ” I think Sugar Crumb Cookie can help us out today!”  But I think if your set ways have been leaving you high and dry, it can’t hurt to mix and match approaches or tear apart your tactics and head out from a different perspective.

I didn’t mean for that to be used that way

Like I said, I don’t think Fischer Price designers thought “We need to make sure that Batman will fit in the swing in the back of the Weeble Wobble Camper.  Get Jenkins on the line, we need those measurements, now!”  But he fits pretty nicely, the one in the back, not his brother on the floor. I think UX should facilitate the knowledge that content and products can take on different forms and uses, kind of like the Wonder Twins.  This might be post release of a product or site.  It might be during the research phase of a new release.  Whenver possible, it’s important to acknowledge and think about how your materials may be used from another person’s perspective.  Maybe you have a site devoted to nutritional habits.  You might be targeting nutritionists, trainers or even doctors that can use your content as materials for their clients.  However, maybe there’s an entrepreneur making a new all in one breakfast bar and wants to know what top 10 fruits and vegetables to include, she might use your site for basic research.  Or maybe her competition thinks deep fried fruits are all the rage and uses your materials as the core benefits of their deep fried watermelon treats.  Different audience than maybe you intended.

I think it’s worth understanding that you’re material might have a totally different life when it’s out in the general public.  So maybe once in a while it might be worth brainstorming how else your content can be utilized out of it’s intended context, it could lead to some new ideas or products.

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