In this month’s Marketing News, J. Walker Smith writes, “the analog edge isn’t going away just because digital technologies are taking over.”
As someone who still takes handwritten notes and keeps a handwritten to-do list, I’m comforted by Smith’s prognosis.
It’s also why I’m inspired by the Rocketbook Smart Notebook. It allows me to continue using the analog method of writing that I prefer, while incorporating digital technologies that increase usability and convenience.
Features include:
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- Scan and save notes in the cloud
- Copy and share with collaborators
- Easily sketch on dot grid pages
- Microwave to erase and reuse pages
These features align with a number of Dieter Rams’ principles of good design: the Rocketbook is useful, innovative, long-lasting, and environmentally-friendly.
It’s also an example of how a product in a seemingly stagnant and saturated industry (paper notebook manufacturing) can be modified or improved.
But what inspires me the most is that the Rocketbook uses technology to complement and enhance an analog practice, instead of attempting to replace one.
What a simple, yet highly functional and cool product! Funny, they make it look like glitter and bling does the magic ([0:42] in their website video), but clearly there’s more behind this seemingly simple “notebook”. e.g., all the research to design what materials to incorporate like the polyester, to designing the book (grids, etc.), and integrating with a mobile app for cloud services. Thank you for sharing this, Joseph!
As Katherine said, this is one of those exemplars of products that integrate the physical/analog with the digital.
As you move forward in this program, I’d encourage you to think about these two things:
1. Let’s say, as a UX Researcher you have been asked to solve a high level problem: Understand what users really think about Everlast. What methodology(methodologies would you adopt) and what would you aim to find out in your study?
2. Say you are now a UX Content strategist, what are some (say 3) next steps that you would advocate to RocketBook lab to promote their product and why?
Please remember there are no clear right or wrong answers, and it’s perfectly ok to think about the UX Design aspect of this if your interests shift from research/content strategy to design through the program.
I enjoyed your post, Joseph. I worked with a UX Architect at Dell who loved the Rocketbook. He and the designer he worked with had a shared Slack channel that he posted all the sketches to and she would take them directly from there. They had a pretty good system going. They later came out with one that can be wiped off with a damp cloth, but the guy I know said the pages were slicker and possibly thinner, so he preferred the microwave version. Regardless of which one I agree with you that the marriage of analog and digital are what make this product really great.