9.5 Purifying Innovation and Technological Discontinuances

Marcos Antonio de Lima Filho, PhD.

Designers can exert purifying selection when they refine a product by removing unnecessary features or elements that may hinder its usability. This process is essential in product development as it ensures that designs remain user-friendly and easy to use. By achieving a delicate balance between feature richness and usability, designers can create products, services, and systems that are both functional and intuitive for users.

As new iterations of a product are released, companies often have a tendency to incorporate additional features with the hope of making the product more appealing to consumers. However, adding too many features can make the product overly complex and difficult to use, which can lead to frustration and decreased user satisfaction (Norman, 2013). As Haskell points out, designs can become overloaded as unnecessary or excessive features are added to a product, thereby complicating its use. The user is then forced to navigate through this complexity, even if they don’t need or care for the extra features (Haskell, 2004).

“This leads to a more confusing user interaction”, Haskell notes. To avoid this tendency towards complexity and feature overload, designers must exercise purifying selection, which involves a careful evaluation of which features are necessary and which can be streamlined or eliminated.

As technologies evolve and market needs change, the relevance of certain product functionalities can increase or decrease. Therefore, it is essential to reevaluate product features, particularly during periods of cultural, economic, or technological change (Hanington & Martin, 2019). Consider, for example, the declining prevalence of the headphone jack in mobile phones (Figure 9.5.1).

In the early 2000s, there was not a pressing need for mobile phones to have a headphone jack. However, with the rise in popularity of digital music, the utility of a headphone jack in a mobile phone started to increase. Suddenly, people were not just using their phones for communication but also for entertainment. Mobile phones began to serve as portable music players, and the functionality of a headphone jack became increasingly necessary. In the subsequent decade, this trend intensified. As smartphones became more sophisticated and mobile data more accessible, these devices turned into the primary medium for all forms of media consumption — music, videos, podcasts, and more. As a result, the headphone jack (3.5mm audio output) became a crucial component of smartphones (Figure 9.5.1).

As customers began to expect a headphone jack in every smartphone, this feature quickly became a de facto standard, reaching a diffusion rate of 98% in 2015. That is, the 3.5mm audio connector grew to become a required quality element. The Kano model explains that once such required quality attributes are identified, they must be incorporated into the product design, as their absence can impact customer satisfaction negatively (Table 9.5.1).

Indeed, mobile phones that lacked a headphone jack were deemed outdated and unfit for media consumption. On the other hand, models that included this feature were favourably selected by consumers.

This decentralised process of market selection resembles natural selection in many aspects. Manufacturers provide a diverse range of models, each with its own unique set of features. This variety allows customers to exert selective pressure based on their preferences. Models that fail to meet customer needs (the unfit) are eventually phased out from markets. In contrast, the best-selling models (the fittest) pass on their successful traits to subsequent generations of products.

The success of a product in the marketplace signals to manufacturers the design elements that should be retained and improved upon. In a competitive environment, manufacturers are pushed to perceive such information and modify their products accordingly to survive and thrive.

However, since 2015, the relevance of the headphone connector has significantly declined. The rise of wireless headphones made the wired connection with a smartphone increasingly inconvenient and redundant, leading to the gradual elimination of this feature. Apple, once again, played a key role in promoting this trend.

The transition to wireless headphones underlines the potential of purifying innovation to generate new value. For instance, Apple’s wireless headphones were priced at a premium, costing almost ten times more than their wired equivalents. Some manufacturers, especially Samsung, publicly mocked Apple’s purifying strategy. However, industry data reveals a subsequent shift in the same direction, reflecting a broader acceptance of this purifying innovation (Figure 9.5.1). Section 4.4 further documents similar trends of feature discontinuation in smartphones, including the phasing out of removable batteries, memory card slots, FM radio, and stylus support.

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Discontinuation in Commercial Aviation

Compared to consumer electronics, there are fewer cases of feature discontinuation in commercial aviation. Nevertheless, aviation is still under the selective pressure of purifying innovation. A prominent example is the shutdown of the A380 and 747 production lines (Figure 9.5.2), and the discontinuation of integrated stairs as airport infrastructure got better (Figure 4.4.5).

The Kano model can also explain the discontinuation of quad-jets and tri-jets from civil aviation. In the early days of the Jet Age, a quad-jet configuration was mandatory for flights over large bodies of water due to safety concerns. In the Kano model, such design requirements are termed “atari mae”, or must-be qualities. However, as jet engine technology advanced and became more reliable, the aviation industry and regulating authorities shifted their stance. This led to the Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS) certification, which allowed twin-engine aircraft to operate for up to 240 minutes on a single engine from the nearest airport.

The ETOPS certification enabled twin-engine aircraft to operate over vast water bodies and remote areas such as desolate ice caps (Hamilton, 2021), effectively encroaching on the previously exclusive domain of quad-jets. This new regulatory environment gave two-engined aircraft a competitive edge over quad-jets and tri-jets. Indeed, the A300, the first ETOPS-certified long-range aircraft, offered a 20% saving in direct operating costs per trip compared to competing tri-jets (Airbus, n.d.).

The introduction of ETOPS had a direct impact on the discontinuation of production lines for the iconic Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 (Figure 9.5.2). Their previously required quad-jet configuration gradually became a reverse quality — that is, an unnecessary, costly redundancy — resulting in their ultimate discontinuation.