Every second Thursday in November, World Usability Day (WUD for short) creates a worldwide connection between research, industry and education. For the first time, it was organized by the two study programs Design & Product Management and MultiMedia Technology. Around 70 guests from business and science came to Campus Urstein to listen to exciting lectures and learn about the latest developments in usability & user experience (UX). Andreas Bunsen from the HUTSCHN team gave a presentation, which we will summarize again here:
Do you really need a swing for 645 euros, are cows purple and is stinginess really that cool?
An obvious question within Andreas Bunsen's presentation on HUTSCHN® was also: “Do you really need” a swing for a proud 645 euros? When we built our first HUTSCHN® for ourselves out of sheer joy, we quickly realized how much time and effort it actually takes to do everything purely by hand, e.g. splicing the ropes by hand, or simply manually processing the seat board made of regional wood and deliberately refraining from automation. In the end, it is the same as with all products: You can have the leather pants made by the regional leather pants maker in the bag shop, enjoy them for a lifetime, even pass them on to the next generation, or you decide to buy cheap industrial goods from the Far East. Everything is always easier and cheaper. A simple swing “Made in China” is available at hardware stores or on the Internet for significantly less money. And that brings us to a topic that concerns us again and again. The apparent bargain, the “cheap” product, has consequences. It usually breaks down faster. It has ecological consequences. And it destroys jobs.
We are increasingly seeing companies going bankrupt that blindly rely on the cheap trend. It is becoming standard for people to be paid less and less. Working at the limit is a permanent state. Across industries. Parttime work and wage dumping are the poverty of the elderly of tomorrow. That concerns all of us. Look at medicine: Midwives, geriatric nurses, nurses and young doctors are suffering from increasingly poor working conditions.
Wage and social dumping have become socially acceptable. Air Berlin has just had to give up in this price war. There was Schlecker, there are scandals in the food sector. There is the poison fipronil in our eggs. There are antibiotics in our meat. The list seems endless. And why? Because everything always has to be cheaper? In times when you fly to Mallorca for €20.-, you can buy a T-shirt in the bargain market for a single euro and at the same time the textile factories in Bangladesh collapse over the workers, you should think outside the box. Because this deadly price spiral - this “avarice is awesome” is coming back like a boomerang. If we devalue work, products and their production more and more, then our own workplace will inevitably be affected at some point. And with our consumption, we have a good deal of control over that. We can decide what we buy — and what we might not really need at all.
When we invited to the workshop for the show with the Mouse Door Opener Day, a child asked us in astonishment where the robots were and the machines “from which the swings fall out.” It's a bit like the “purple cows” from the chocolate commercial that children are looking for who have never seen a real cow before. The distorted images of advertising and the “avarice is awesome” have shaped us. We think it's too much. But despite all the criticism — there is hope. Take a look at the Berchtesgadener Land cooperative dairy, for example. Farmers have been paid the highest milk price nationwide for a long time. Increasingly, people are beginning to rethink as part of their economic opportunity. Maybe I'd rather buy a pack of organic butter and avoid it elsewhere? No question about it - a month can be over damn quickly, the account empty and, depending on your life situation and income, there can be no alternative to the “election”. But within our respective capabilities, there may be alternatives. And even small steps can have big effects in the long run!
Unfortunately, many products today are produced in such a way that they just make it past the warranty period. This so-called planned obsolescence is increasingly annoying many of us. You buy the brand-name dishwasher and as if by magic - shortly after the warranty period has expired - it breaks down by chance. The service hotline called immediately advises you to buy a new one, as a repair would probably be too expensive anyway. All of this may still be used by the manufacturer's cash register, or by shareholders, but it's so frustrating for us consumers and a huge mess for the environment. There are countless examples of this. And that's where we come to the question posed at the beginning. No, you don't “need” a swing for €645.-, just as when you think about it again, you don't really have to have everything that advertising makes you believe. Sometimes less is more. But if you decide to buy something, then the next time you buy it, you might be able to ask yourself whether it's worth the price. Aspects such as quality, durability, origin, ecological balance and simply the story behind it can then become a lasting experience that you can enjoy again and again for a long time. More information is available here in the link.