Today, I read an interesting article from some product designer-types at Core77 .

The “Ain’t it awful” phenomena seems particularly strong to me lately.  It sure seems like the first thing we all think about is not how good something is, but how WE would make it better.  Maybe it simply because we are a nation of entreprenuers at our core, and we all have a fascination with making things better.  Or,  i we are never satified, always searching, exploring…and yes, complaining.

Here is a tease of the article linked above….

“Maybe we’re crazy, but we think the following might contain a lesson for product designers vis-a-vis human desire. Apple is widely recognized as selling people easy-to-use products that they actually want, but these products are often attacked relentlessly in forums and online chatter. Did you ever notice that when people criticize Apple products, it often starts “I love the [iGadget] but…”? Seems to us people never used to complain about products in this way. Our theory is that when you give people what they want, they actually complain more than they did when they were simply putting up with whatever was doled out to them. It’s kind of like you’re in the Soviet Union circa 1985 standing in line for 220-grit toilet paper, then you get whisked to a 2007 supermarket where there’s aisles upon aisles of soft, fluffy Charmin, and suddenly you want the Jumbo roll so you don’t have to replace it as often, and you want a coupon to pay for it.”

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