The end of 2020 approaches. I take a look back at the product experiences that I liked during the last 365 days. A collection of apps and websites I use a lot myself, some of the books and comics I’ve read and some other stuff I’ve found inspiring.
2020 is going to be the most extraordinary year of my life. During these 365 days, my son joined this crazy world and I am experiencing, with other 7.8 billion people, the COVID-19 pandemic. As a matter of fact, both the parent and forced captivity statuses had an impact on my personal product experiences. Especially compared with what happened last year. These two factors determined some behavioural changes that triggered new needs/problems to solve. Hence, here’s the list of the product experiences that made my life easier and/or more pleasant across this incredible 2020:
-
Physical Device
Cybex e-priam
I became a proud owner of this fantastic electric stroller. At the beginning of the “research phase,” we defined our key need based on buying a stroller easy to fold and unfold and extremely light to push up to the hill where we live. We opted for one that is not super easy to fold and unfold and heavier than the average. It solved all our problems because it has an electric engine that makes climbing to our place super easy. We found out that the electric engine helps you on all terrains and makes super easy and enjoyable to go out with any weather condition. Basically is like to opt for a top-class SUV. On top of that, we had the luck to buy the Ferrari edition…🏎️ -
Native app(s) / website(s)
Amazon, Galaxus, Digitech
My wife and I massively increased our engagement with e-commerce platforms. We interacted with several of them and, sadly, most of the time the experiences were broken. First of all the mobile experience sucks. The good news though is that you can still find great user experience if you buy on one of these 3 platforms. The buying and the customer care journeys are well designed and the whole process is so smooth and frictionless that now is tough for me to think of a different way to buy some type of goods such as diapers, books or electronic stuffp.s. Hey, e-commerce experts, there are 14.02 billions of active mobile devices and your pages are very slow and packed with content that doesn’t help the user to buy!
-
Urban (and extra-urban) mobility experience
Riser
The silver lining of the pandemic experience is the increased quality of the work-private life balance. I had more time for enjoying my motorbike and I had the chance to explore part of Switzerland with it. After several attempts, the Riser app provided to me the best riding experience and it is my loyal, trustful and precious travelling companion. Easy to use, very consistent with the standard usability patterns of a map app experience but at the same time 100% focused on the biker needs. I liked a lot the community part, where you can benefit from the experience of other bikers. Thanks to this feature, I discovered bendy roads and enjoyed incredible views of Swiss nature. Whit this app even a few kilometres can turn into a marvellous experience -
Vehicle
MINI Countryman Cooper S
Like for the e-priam, this is another product experience triggered by the arrival of my son. As a petrol-head, I am very sensitive to driving product experiences. That’s why at the beginning, I was considering different options but the SUV version of the MINI family. Of course, its style played a key role in the whole process but I was really surprised by the cockpit real estate, the great park assistant package, especially for my wife, used to drive a Smart for two! We used our MINI Countryman not only on the urban paths but also to go to the mountains and so far we did already three trips to Italy. The driving experience is great because is super easy to drive and the response of the engine is prompt at any time. Its size that allows to easily access our parking lot and the room we have at our disposal is enough to organise our travels. -
Car accessories
Thule roof-top
I’ve bought a Thule roof-top to use when we travel for more than a bunch of days. It’s important because we use the trunk mainly to store the electric stroller.
I was impressed by the ease of assembling it on the vehicle roof, I could do the operation by myself and it worked perfectly!
I know, it’s not the best for the look&feel of the car and the noise of the wind after the 100 KM/h makes you feel as you were in a sailing regatta.
At the end of the day, I think this model compared with other brands is a good compromise for making people comfortable and to not cover their eyes when they look at their own car. -
Wearables and other tech stuff
Apple Watch 6
At the end of the summer, I received from SketchApp the brand new Apple Watch 6. This is my second experience with such a device. Back in the years, I bought the first model Apple released and after I while I wasn’t really happy with it. With this new model, I completely changed my mind. The battery life is great and I don’t need to charge it on daily basis. The health-related features are very useful for me while I am doing my sports activities and this is enough for me for turning myself in a passionate user of this device. -
TV Show(s)
Fargo S04, Sneaker Heads S01, Devs S01, Utopia S01, The Last Dance S01
Among all the product experiences, I consider the TV Shows one of the most complex categories to evaluate. For these ones, the cast, the storyline and the overall quality of the production made them stand out from the plethora and the sea of sameness of the TV Shows catalogue. -
Book
James Clear – Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day.
This is a nutshell, what the author says about his book. I am a big fan of the frameworks as a reference for designing and building your own way to success and satisfaction. By reading this book I have started to have some atomic habits myself such as my daily pilates routine and I have to say, after a few months I can see the first outcomes popping up. According to my experience, this book shows how to learn and apply this practice to our lives -
Comic
Zerocalcare – Scheletri
As usual, this artist delights me with stories that are very easy to link with my own life. I think the power of his narrative is related to this aspect of the whole comic experience. Especially for this book, I felt engaged with the characters about topics such as friendship, the way we faced the first big challenges of our lives and how easy is to lose people along the path