Your Research Is Lying To You

You believe that a good purchase is the result of a good process but the process is only a way to handle your own anxiety. You spend three weeks looking at screens and you build a spreadsheet with nine columns and the cells are green and red.

You compare the weight of the wool and you read about the microns and you look at the photos of the weave. You think the information gives you power but the information only belongs to the buyer. The user does not care about the microns. The user does not see the spreadsheet.

The user only feels the heat and the weight and the texture of the fiber against the skin. The person with the most information has the least power over the final result and the result is decided in silence.

The Elevator and the Engineer

I sat in an elevator for twenty-one minutes last Tuesday and the walls were metal and the air was thin. The light was yellow and it flickered. I looked at the emergency button and it was a red circle. I pushed the button and nothing happened.

A man in a suit had bought that elevator for the building and he had read the technical drawings and he had signed a contract for the maintenance. He knew the motor speed and he knew the weight capacity but he was not in the car with the yellow light.

I was the user and the specifications did not matter to me. I only wanted the door to open and it stayed shut. The buyer optimizes what he can see on a page and the user lives with what he cannot see.

Fourteen Hours of Research

Tobias watched from the kitchen doorway and the house was still. His partner sat on the sofa and she reached for the new blanket. She did not look at the label and she did not ask about the price. She pulled the baby alpaca fleece over her legs and she leaned back into the cushions.

The old grey blanket from IKEA sat on the floor. It was made of synthetic fibers and it was thin and it had pilled at the edges. Tobias had spent fourteen hours on the research and he had chosen Tukuy Brand because the chain was short and the founder was Peruvian.

He knew that the baby alpaca fleece was gathered in small batches and he knew that the fibers were hollow and they trapped the air. He knew the difference between the Natural line and the Farbe line. He knew that the undyed fleece was unique and that no chemicals had touched the wool.

He waited for her to say something about the softness but she said nothing. She closed her eyes and her breathing slowed and the blanket rose and fell with her chest. She had used the old grey one for four years and it was her habit to reach for it.

Now she reached for the new one and she did not think about the change. This was the verdict. The verdict was not a sentence or a compliment. The verdict was the absence of thought. If the user has to think about the object then the object has failed.

The Seven-Day Conversation

Research shows that 61% of premium household purchases are never discussed again after the first seven days but those objects are used for an average of 1,142 days.

This means you pay for a conversation that lasts a week but you live in a silence that lasts three years. The buyer wants to be right and the user wants to be comfortable. These two goals do not always meet. The buyer looks at the price and the brand and the origin and he feels the pride of a good choice. The user feels the temperature of the room and the itch of the wool and the weight of the day.

The baby alpaca fiber is different because it lacks lanolin and it does not itch the skin. People with allergies buy these blankets because they have tried sheep's wool and they have failed. They have spent money on Merino and they have spent money on Cashmere and they have woken up with red marks on their necks.

They approach the purchase with a high level of fear. They read the reviews and they look for the word "soft" and they hope the word is true. But the skin is the only judge that cannot be fooled by a marketing department. The skin has no interest in the story of the Peruvian highlands or the cruelty-free sourcing. The skin only knows if it is irritated or if it is at peace.

Natural Collection #4

Tobias moved into the living room and he picked up the old grey blanket from the floor. He carried it to the hallway and he folded it and he put it on a high shelf. He felt the static electricity from the synthetic fibers and it snapped against his thumb.

The new blanket stayed on the sofa. It was a dark brown from the Natural collection and the color came from the animal and not from a vat of dye. It looked like the earth and it felt like a cloud. He had worried about the cost and he had worried about the shipping from Peru to Germany but those worries were gone now. They were part of the research phase and the research phase was over.

The Gap Between Chooser and User

The gap between the chooser and the user exists in every part of the world. The person who approves the design of a hospital corridor does not push a bed down that corridor at three in the morning. The person who selects the enterprise software for a company does not enter the data into the fields for eight hours a day.

They look at the cost per seat and they look at the integration features and they make a logical choice. The workers live in the frustration of the menus and the lag of the interface. The buyer sees a solution and the user sees a tool.

When you buy a gift for someone you are trying to bridge this gap. You want them to know that you thought about them and you want them to feel the quality. You buy a gift box from a curated collection and you hope the presentation speaks for you. But the gift box is discarded and the tissue paper is recycled.

What remains is the object. If the object is a blanket from a mass-production factory it will lose its shape in two seasons. The fibers will thin and the warmth will leak out. The user will not tell you this. They will simply stop reaching for it. They will put it in the back of the closet and they will go back to the old one that they know.

I stayed in that elevator until the technician arrived and he opened the door with a long key. He did not ask me how I felt and he did not talk about the yellow light. He looked at the control board and he checked the voltage and he made a note on a clipboard. He was the expert and I was the cargo.

He saw a machine that needed a part and I saw a cage that had stolen twenty minutes of my life. We were looking at the same metal box but we were not in the same world.

The person who buys a blanket for a home is the technician. They check the specs and they verify the source. They want to know that the alpaca was treated well and that the weavers were paid a fair wage. They want to know that the product will last for a decade. This is good work and it is necessary work.

But the person under the blanket is the cargo. They are the ones who need the warmth to be real. They are the ones who need the texture to be kind.

The Right to Be Forgotten

Three days passed and the grey blanket stayed on the high shelf. Tobias watched his partner come home from work and she was tired. She dropped her bag on the floor and she walked to the sofa and she lay down. She reached for the alpaca blanket without looking.

She pulled it to her chin and she sighed. She did not thank him for the research and she did not mention the microns. She simply used the thing because it was the best thing in the room for a tired person.

This is the only success that matters in a shared home. The buyer wins when the user stops noticing the object. You pay for the right to be forgotten. You spend the three weeks on the spreadsheet so that the person you love never has to think about a blanket ever again. They only have to feel warm.

The baby alpaca fibers are hollow and they are strong. They do not break like sheep's wool and they do not trap the sweat. In the winter they hold the heat and in the spring they breathe. This is the technical reality. The human reality is that the blanket becomes a part of the evening. It becomes a part of the sleep. It becomes the thing that is there when the lights go out.

You can buy a blanket that is cheaper and you can buy a blanket that is easier to find in a big store. You can save the money and you can save the time of the research. But the user will know. They will not know the price and they will not know the brand but they will know the itch. They will know the cold spots. They will know the static. They will reach for the old grey one because the new one is not a comfort.

Tobias went to the kitchen and he made two cups of tea. He walked back to the living room and he sat in the chair across from the sofa. He looked at the blanket and he saw the way the natural brown wool caught the light from the lamp. It was a good object. It was a honest object.

He had done the research and he had made the choice and now he could stop being the buyer. He could just be a man in a room with a person who was warm. The yellow light of the elevator was far away and the green cells of the spreadsheet were gone. There was only the house and the silence and the heat of the tea in his hands.