Class Blog for UW MCDM 546 class

Week 7 – Service Envy November 16, 2009

AT&T Developer website

Our assignment this week is to review the AT&T Developer website (aka “devCentral”) http://developer.att.com/developer/ and determine ways to create “service envy.”  DevCentral was specifically created for developers to create and market applications for phones distributed by the AT&T mobile network. Peer developer sites used for comparison are Motodev (http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/motodevstudio/) which is for developing applications for the Android system and Apple Developer (http://developer.apple.com/) for developers creating applications to be used on Apple hardware. (Other contrasting websites include Droid phone website http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/home and the Intel Rock Star campaign http://bruceeric.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/intels-rock-star-campaign/.)

Service envy: We can think of products as serving two basic needs: to perform the function they are engineered to do, and to confirm and communicate the owner’s set of values. The second function is crucial. Products help us identify ourselves through a complex product and brand language. If we want to make people desire services more than products, then services will also have to communicate with these values, and we have to create services that help people tell one another who they are. Our major challenge is to enable people to express who they are through the use of services instead of through ownership of things. We must create service envy. (Moggridge, 2009)

This project is to identify ways that can help a developer want to confirm and communicate the owner’s set of values. In short, AT&T developer site needs to look cool, so that the cool kids (developers) will want to come over and play (make applications.)

According to the background materials devCentral is a website that has a hodge-podge of services and applications that have been cobbled together over the years. There is little AT&T branding, besides the logo. At first glance, from a non-user is that the site is pretty generic and, except for the AT&T logo in the upper-left, there is little to distinguish it from any other computer-oriented website. It could be selling software, hardware, or services.

Apple Developer website

In contrast, while similarly spare in design, the Apple Developer siteis highly branded and clearly Apple. In fact, one person’s expressed in class last week, when asked what the first things that came to mind about this site when they saw it was “it looks very Apple.” Apple used specific images to make clearly defined audience paths- iPhone developers, Mac OS developers – and even called out specific developers for Snow Leopard.

By creating these specific paths, they accomplish two things simultaneously – 1) they assist the developer to start immediately down their path towards developing their project and 2) through careful language, they make provide a welcoming, club-like atmosphere. “Come on in” it seems to say, “and join in the fun. But first, would you like coffee or tea?”

The step-by-step process seems clear even for a lay person to follow (1. Develop, 2. Test, 3. Distribute.) In addition, Apple has also provided video examples of what developers have created using their software, which is inspiring and reassuring to would-be developers.

Motorola's Developer website

Motorola also makes use of graphics on the home page to immediately explain what this web site is supposed to accomplish. They show an image of the Android phone, they have a cute little cartoon robot (android) who is a graphical display of the steps listed directly below these two images – 1. Get started, 2. Develop and 3. Distribute. In addition, a lot of the links to important tools that a developer might need (Motodev Studio for Android 1.o for one) are placed high on the page with their own graphical treatment. Also, this was the only developer site that seemed to include social sharing.

In contrast, AT&T has no highlighted tool. Events and awards dominate the main graphical image on the page, which speaks more for the corporate goals than the developer needs. AT&T could take a page from the Motodev site by highlighting some of their most popular products or brands and identifying their developer studio software on the home page (for example, Nokia, iPhone, Palm). They could redesign the navigation so that the lower-level items were easier to see. They could include some nice, appealing-to-the-user/not clearly stock-photography graphics. If they focusing their design on the developer, rather than on AT&T, they will create service envy.