On a daily basis, we interact with thousands of products that we often don’t think about. It seems like these products that are ubiquitous throughout modern life generally fall into one of two camps: 1) products that are largely the same, and 2) products that vary significantly despite all serving a similar purpose. Of course, there are products that are generally regulated into uniformity such as shipping containers or outlets, but it is really interesting to see how certain products organically evolve to become very uniform or highly varied over time.
In a future article, we will definitely explore what specific traits make a product lean one way or another, but I think there are a few overarching themes that will dictate whether or not a product diversifies in form and function:
- Aesthetics: If a product is required to operate by necessity or by desire in different settings and doesn’t have to cross between too many different use-cases, this can breed variety. This is a bit of a spoiler, but I think chairs fall into this category. The importance of aesthetics to the product in its environment will also help drive this one direction or another.
- Dominant Shared Features: If a product has a dominant feature that requires it to function, it is often difficult to create major changes in the form of the product– a flat-screen television might be a straightforward example of this.
- Pure Physics: In general, products that have very rigid and complex constraints by way of pure physics seem to converge towards one another in form. This applies to large products like rockets, and small products like microprocessors. In areas where the constraints are softer while delivering the same function, you generally see a higher diversity in overall form.
But without further ado, here are a few examples of these relatively “low-variability” and relatively “high-variability” products:
Low-Variability
Drywall
Drywall is widely used as a building material in modern apartments and houses. While there are different types of drywall that have different sound, absorption, and thermal properties, the overall products mainly consist of gypsum and plaster, with low variability in form, color, sizes, material types, interlinking shapes, and more. Drywall is meant to be out-of-sight and as modular as possible, so the standard shapes/sizes and drab colorlessness are certainly actively designed features. Overall, though, it is surprising that there isn’t a competitor product for constructing modern rooms.
Zippers
Although zippers differ in color, waterproofness, and materials, the basic design is largely the same across all products. In addition, a single company (YKK) produces an absurd amount of the zippers used globally. I don’t have any hard numbers off-hand and refuse to disillusion myself, so I have to assume that 99.5% of all zippers produced globally were manufactured by the YKK Corporation. The design of the zipper is simple, effective, and can be elegant– it’s easy to see why it hasn’t been dethroned by another general fastener, particularly for flexible products.
Smartphones
You’ll notice below that mid-2000’s mobile phones are noted as a high-variability product below, but as the time of this writing in 2022, there is very low variability in the smartphone market. Particularly when it comes to the features of modern smartphones, the touchscreen and cameras have driven a very uniform and, I would say, somewhat boring design. The addition of the “notch” on iPhones might have been the most dramatic shift in the look of smartphones when looking at the screen, and that was a small aesthetic change. I think this trend often reinforces Apple’s smartphone dominance since so much of the value proposition for a specific smartphone comes from its ecosystem and software. This trend will definitely not last forever, but the modern smartphone really is a marvel of engineering and design despite the uniformity.
Sidewalks
Sidewalks come in all shapes and sizes, but predominantly feature a paved or masoned surface elevated about 6″ above the adjacent road, somewhere between 1 and 10 people wide. The way that features like bus stops, lights, and poles are integrated into the sidewalk is typically with masonry anchors without too much consideration for aesthetics. Similar to roads, sidewalks are a high-utility-low-aesthetics product that don’t vary too much.
High-Variability
Chairs
Apart from the aesthetic considerations of chairs, the fundamental challenge of making a product that is comfortable to sit on has a surprising diversity of solutions. Disregarding benches and couches, chairs come in all types of shapes, sizes, and materials. Even narrowing in on something like an office/desk chair, there are seemingly endless different designs available for purchase.
Fences
Fences serve a variety of purposes: keeping animals out, keeping people out, limiting sound, limiting visibility, inspire fear (Addams Family mansion) and many more. Without pulling open a Home Depot catalog, I don’t have much more to say about them, and a picture is worth a thousand words anyways:
Mid-2000’s Mobile Phones
In contrast to modern smartphones, cellphones of the mid- and late-2000’s were a great example of widely varied products all satisfying relatively similar functions of making calls, viewing messages, and entering text. Without the need or ability to have a touchscreen on a mobile phone, and with users placing different value on the ability to make calls and message people over email or text while on the go, there were countless unique cellphone designs on the market. There were Razrs and Chocolates and Blackberries and Sidekicks– phones that flipped, slid, survived getting run over. It was an exciting time!
Cutlery
Western cutlery (flatware) falls into three main categories: spoons, forks, and knives. Ignoring the brilliant and unique invention of the Spork, cutlery serves so many specific purposes that there are nearly infinite designs available. You can get wooden, steel, plastic, cardboard, aluminum, and ceramic cutlery. They can be tiny like a teaspoon or massive like a salad spoon. In fact, there are so many options that when you are creating a wedding registry, you can easily become overwhelmed– no point there, just putting it out into the universe.
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