What your product does, is more important that what it says it is

Last month, I went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. In one part of that exhibition, hung in a frame was a letter she wrote. The letter pointed out that people in an art gallery seem to very rarely look at the art. They spend most of their time looking at each other.

Next time you are in an art gallery, watch some people and see what they do. Yes, they look at the art briefly, some people even take pictures of it (why they do that is a subject worthy of its own article), but then they look at the people looking at the art, then they look at their phone, the little text next to the art, listen to their audio guide and in the end, they don't actually spend much time looking at the art at all.

But art galleries are about looking at art, right? Well, it doesn't seem like it to me, it's more than, or perhaps different to that, and the actual behavior people show, tells us that looking at art is not the whole picture. For some people, it might not be in the picture at all for instance, it's not hard to spot the teenager or spouse dragged there against their will.

Next time you are in an art gallery, watch some people and see what they do. Yes, they look at the art briefly, some people even take pictures of it (why they do that is a subject worthy of its own article), but then they look at the people looking at the art, then they look at their phone, the little text next to the art, listen to their audio guide and in the end, they don't actually spend much time looking at the art at all.

This shows us something important about building products. It shows us that there is a difference between what a product is and what a product does.

There is nothing hugely profound here, but its so often overlooked, and it matters. If an art gallery was just about looking at art then you would build bigger ones, with more artists, with ideal viewing spaces to see the art. To be honest, there are many art galleries which do just this, floor after floor of more art to look at, great big spaces to walk round the art but these places often make me feel more impressed with the building that the art itself, and I don't think thats the point.

On the one hand its obvious that it's not just about physically looking at the art, it might be about looking at the art and getting something from it, something emotional, educational, a new perspective. Perhaps something the artist wanted to communicate, perhaps something they didn't but something that you see in it, and so the art gallery needs to cater for that. I think thats why we see little bits of text next to installations and things like guided tours, it helps people get that insight.

On the other hand, there might be some more 'hidden' motivations going on. Some people quite obviously go to art galleries because they think they are supposed to. People will ask "did you see the Mona Lisa when you went to Paris?", "Did you go to the Picasso museum in Barcelona?" not wanting to seem uncultured people tick them off their list, hoping that they will find them interesting, the looks on their faces often tells me that they don't. Others are going there because someone they care about wants to, but its not for them. Others as Kusama, points out probably go there for the idea of looking at the art but actually end up look at the people, which they find more interesting.

These motivations are interesting and led to a more complex understanding of why people are there. The art gallery is a place to look at art, but it does so much more than that, it educates you, it gives you new perspectives, it makes you seem more cultured, it helps you to appease you friends or family, it gives you somewhere to be for a few hours before waiting for your plane. In other words, its does a lot more than what you might expect from a description of what it is.

People can get may different things from an art gallery and groups of people can have totally mixed reasons for going. This is true for products that you build in the digital world as well. Sometimes people are using your product for the first reason you state on your website, other times that's useful but its not the only reason or sometimes even the main reason. When you are thinking about what to build next, consider these other motivations, consider catering to them a little more directly or making sure you don't break these parts of the experience.

For example, if you remember that people like looking at other people when going round an art gallery. You might realize that limiting access to individual tour could be a big problem. It might be better for helping people to learn about the art but no where near as good for looking at the people looking at the art.

The lesson is that when you are working out what to build next, make sure you really know what people are getting from your product and don't assume what your product is, is the same thing as what it does.