Mind bender: How tall is your coffee mug?

[RiderOfGiraffes]

OK, this isn't speficially about coffee mugs, it's about perception. Stay with me, there are lessons for entrepreneurs, but first you should play the game.

Take your favorite mug. Look at it closely, and imagine wrapping a piece of string around it once. Now image taking that piece of string and holding one end against the base. How high will it reach?

As high as the rim? 20% higher? 60% higher? Take the time to try to visualise it.

Now do it.

If the result surprises you, then you've got something from this exercise. But if not, read on.

Now go and try it on people you know, or people you don't know if you have the courage. See what they think. See if they're surprised by this result.

I pretty much guarantee that they will be. And if you weren't, it serves as a reminder that your customers aren't you!

It doesn't matter if you like your product, or think it's usable, or think it's great. What matters is your customers opinions, not yours.

Of course, it helps if you like what you sell.

[DanielStraight]

I don't see how this says anything except that people aren't that good at visually comparing height and circumference of cylinders. The people who designed my coffee mug are probably just as bad at it, so it isn't like I as the customer am not seeing the vision they had in mind. They would be just as wrong unless they happened to remember the dimensions. The height to circumference ratio of coffee mugs (considered on its own not in how it affects design) seems completely irrelevant to usability and greatness of coffee mugs as well.

Don't get me wrong, I think this inability to spatially relate height and circumference is interesting. And I think it's interesting that customers view products differently than designers. I just don't think the two ideas are related in even the slightest way.

[RiderOfGiraffes → DanielStraight]

Hi DanielStraight, thanks for taking the time to reply, as you have helped me clarify some thoughts.

Firstly, I've tried this in person on about 20 people, and almost every one has reacted with "No Way!" and snatching the string from my hand to do it for themselves. They thought it simply had to be a trick, it couldn't be true! They were amazed.

I agree, pretty much all this says is that people are, in general, really bad at comparing height with circumference. The thing that interested me was that every one of them "knows" that C=pi.D. They still got it wrong, and it blew their minds.

I was hoping some people here would try it and have a similar reaction. It appears I was wrong.

However, the continuing point is this. The few who didn't get surprised, are surprised that others are surprised. To me, that says that they expect others to think as they do. For entrepreneurs this is the route to a quick and not-very-painless death for their enterprise(s).

I was intending this exercise to be an analogy for people, just as the color of the bike-shed is an analogy. Clearly my intent failed for you. You have taken it very literally, talking about the designers, and how the ratio might relate to usability.

That wasn't my intent, and I clearly failed in my intent, at least with you. So I have learned a lesson.

My readers aren't me.

I'll be thinking about that for a while.

Thanks again for your time.

[RiderOfGiraffes]

To help visualise ...

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=coffee+mug