Week 6- Service Envy AT&T

Anyone can simply own an item, but whether one can express themselves with the item makes a huge difference. In Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge, Moggridge states that a major challenge in technology is “to enable people to express who they are through the use of services instead of through ownership of things,” (423). From this quote, we can try to analyze what it means to be able to express yourself with a product using service envy. AT&T’s developer website appears to not be using service envy because the website is not creative or appealing making it hard for developers to willingly want to express themselves.

In order for people to express themselves in technology, they have to be able to do it in an easy manner. If it is to complicated, they will stop interacting with it and go somewhere else. For example, for my student blog in this class, I originally had it on MediaSpace. MediaSpace has a lot of great qualities about it, but I did not feel like the blog section gave me space to be creative. It was very complicated for me to continue to run and express myself. Posting items was difficult, and the blog would frequently shut down causing me to lose work. Due to the multiple problems, I switched my blog to Google. Even though I felt a sense of ownership with my page on MediaSpace, I did not feel the ability to express myself was efficient or creative. Creativity is very important when it comes to inventing ideas.

To create service envy on the AT&T developer site, I recommend that the website needs to be made more stimulating, thus making it more creative. In order for people to be uploading creative ideas, they need to trust that the company they are uploading too is creative enough to launch their ideas. All of the other competitor websites have pictures, videos, graphics, and other items that are motivating, particularly the Verizon Droid. The AT&T Developer site is simply boring, and not inviting to anyone. Very few people would be excited about posting their application on a pure white site with nothing but text on it. The Verizon Droid, by comparison, has a huge central image revolving around and a variety of fonts that catch the eye, enabling developers to express who they are because they are stimulated by the site.

All of the information to help the developers post information appears to be there, but does not stimulate the eye. AT&T needs to post pictures, videos, or other creative features that get people excited about posting content on their website. If they leave the content as it stands, many people may not be happy with the website and go somewhere else, like I left the MediaSpace blog. 

            The AT&T developer page does not invite developers. In order for them to have service envy, they have to make it creative and inviting. As a quote from the class PowerPoint stated,  “The devCentral vision lacks breadth,” and for it to gain any on its website it has to be made more creative.