In recent years, people are keen to consume experiences. I would like to write something about this trend, focusing on the fact that experiences can be treated as values.

Traditionally, people have placed values on tangible products as they feature distinctive characteristics such as functions and styling. This trend, however, has been changing as more and more consumers became interested in intangible things like experiences and stories they can get by possessing a product. Now we are living in the age of consuming experiences, where we enjoy experiencing the process of using products rather than owning finished products. But this trend is nothing new because we have been finding pleasure in things like BBQ and strawberry picking for a long time.

But make no mistake, my story is not about product design becoming old-fashioned and design of the intangible gaining more importance. However much the times have changed, overwhelmingly high-quality output never loses its value.

Let’s get back to the main theme, the value of experience.

What does it mean to turn people’s experiences into something valuable in the world of product manufacturing? In an affluent society as we live in today, the market has become saturated and it’s increasingly hard for businesses to differentiate their products. Consumers’ desire to buy finished products have been waning, meaning that they begin to feel products barely offer meaningful differences. As a result, their way of thinking has shifted from “what to buy” to “from whom to buy.” The reason for consuming goods has shifted from “I want to support this company” to “because it was interesting to be there.” Their experiences are the main reason for spending money. So, it is necessary for them to widen their human networks and share their experiences with other people before they buy something.

If you are a person of insight, you may have already noticed the crux of the matter.

What kind of experiential values can designers provide? We may be heading toward an era where designers will play quite different rolls than they do at the moment.

Isao Sakata

Product Design Dept.

Senior Director