School of Information

The mass customization trend in product design demonstrated that two-way information flows between manufacturers and customers can support the marketing of premium products. Now a new generation of digitally augmented products, including the iPod and the TiVo, offer a different and perhaps more viable customization experience. These products are physically the same for every user, but are individualized in the process of use, through services in which the user creates an interaction history that is digitally stored and accessible to the user and the service provider. These datastreams can form the basis for entirely new types of services that allow everyday experiences to inform key decisions.