Designing for the edge case

“The key is, I believe, to design for the edge but create products that can make the shift over the to the mass markets.”

I’ll admit that it was the Yes album cover art that caught my eye on this Engadget article, but it certainly proved to be quite interesting.  Essentially, it says that we should be designing electronics so that they will be initially bought by edge users, but can be easily transitioned to the mainstream.  The author gives a few examples of consumer electronics that followed this pattern and were subsequently successful.  I think this idea can be applied to anything that designers come up with.  For example, think of the first Honda Insight or the new Skittles home page.  These are certainly edge use cases: environmentalists for the Insight, and, well, social media users for Skittles.  Now, Honda is getting ready to release the 2010 Honda Insight which will most likely be bought by more than just edge users.  As for Skittles, we’ll just have to wait and see how that pans out and if other brands follow a similar tactic.