Digital Jugaad
Jugaad in Hindi means a resourceful productivity hack. There are stories of people using washing machines to make lassi. (yogurt with water, sugar, and various seasonings or fruits). Converting two wheelers into mini farm tractors and 6 seat riders, building home made air conditioners, and the countless interesting Jugaad stories with physical products and services.
This got me thinking on the Jugaad for digital products and spoke to a few people around this topic. Looks like there is no barrier for our brilliant minds to mould a product to our advantage and create unique experiences.
In mid 2020, LinkedIn launched a voice recording feature to record the pronunciation of a user’s name on their profile. Presuming the whole idea was to pull down linguistic and cultural barriers and bring people closer through correct name pronunciations and great first impressions. This behaviour is only natural when you meet someone for the first time, outside your culture.
However, users use this feature to their own advantage as its open to exploration and interpretation. Some record sales pitches, life mottos, seasonal greetings and some with the most intricate details around how their profile stands out to recruiters or clients. This is what I call digital jugaad.
Another interesting area of user innovation is to use the first and last name displayed on user profiles. This mostly happens in peer to peer commerce platforms like OLX in India or globally used social networking products like LinkedIn. Users use the first name and last name space to promote themselves with catchy lines to attract their target audience, persuade other users visit their profile through interesting copy and sell products and services.
When users show their ingenuity, product designers need to observe such patterns.
Patterns tell us what users really want and need. There are countless ways users use product features to suit their specific needs. No harm in this for both product companies or the users.
Above image is a screenshot from a peer to peer commerce mobile app.
Let’s look at some other interesting digital jugaad use cases. Using Amazon’s address book feature to store all your addresses for purposes other than shopping.
Storing passwords in a family calendar on a specific date, 20 years, ahead in time. Now, who would think someone would use a calendar in that way? However, not every jugaad needs to be accounted by product designers as some patterns are irrelevant from the core problem the product is solving.
Using the contact book on your phone to store your identification numbers is a common practice, easy to pull up anytime. Using display pictures or status updates on chat applications to display an advertisement and sell your products or services.
Taking quick screenshots for payment confirmations or form submissions. Not everyone wants to go to the share option, select a way to save content and then send it the desired location on your device or some other contact. Just take a screenshot to backup in photos. It’s that easy. Some products, leverage this pattern and even have a feature to take a screenshot right in their apps. This enables a smooth offline experience and smart companies, play to the specific needs of users by observing the usage patterns.
Voice interaction opens up even more digital jugaad possibilities today. Some products are designed for people to push the limits, so products can learn and adapt to changing and specific needs of every user or an entire home. Amazon Echo calls for user exploration and is designed for the user to ask anything.
The content of the input is really not in the product’s control, when the interaction controls are not confined to a specific format.
The possibilities are endless, however what matters for product designers is to observe and identify the common patterns and ideas that could potentially enhance the user experience.