The Value of Little Things
Sometimes, little things make a big difference
A few weeks ago, I came across a series by a UX designer on Instagram that showcased how small designs integrated into their daily lives and activities in Japan have made life and seemingly complex activities simpler in their society. It was titled “UX in Japan 🇯🇵”. Cool right!
A few excerpts from the post are shown below…
Check the post here.
The post was quite captivating to me as it made me reflect on how certain amenities and affordances I considered small or never even considered within my immediate environment have made my life easier and subsequently brought value alongside.
A certain one came to mind.
As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, I think an issue everyone or most of us can relate to is unstable electricity. I work remotely most time and I have to work during the day or late at night when there might be no electricity. This has caused me and a lot of other people to resort to other means of generating electricity for ourselves. Most times it requires manually switching from the regular electricity (Nepa) phase to the generated electricity phase.
A few times you might discover electricity has been restored very late and this would have cost you some fuel. An earlier discovery would have saved you more money as you would have conserved the fuel you lost to be used later.
Growing up as kids in Nigeria, I think most of us remember screaming “Up Nepa” at one point or the other 😂. Those Up Nepa chants during the day alerted the neighbourhood whenever the light was restored.
Later on, households started adopting these very loud electric alarms that do the job of alerting the neighbourhood of the power restorations. These alarms installed by a few households in the neighbourhoods have helped save a lot as they promptly alert everyone who would in turn switch to their “Nepa Phase”.
…I believe they are very loud so as not to be masked by the noise from generators…
Some people also installed light bulbs at certain places in their houses where it would catch attention quickly and alert them of the restoration of power.
…A very thoughtful and inclusive idea if you ask me, considering the deaf…
When I was younger, I didn’t really understand the value these alarms came with. But later on, I understood the impact better. An electric alarm of about ₦8,000 - ₦10,000 ($15-$16) would help save a large percentage of the households in the neighbourhood fuel costs.
An hour late discovery of power restoration might cost an average Nigerian household using a 5KVa generator roughly about 1 to 1.2 Litre of petrol which is around ₦170 to ₦180. If the Alarm helps alert that household 200 times in a year that will be about 200 Litres of fuel saved in a year. This equals about ₦36,000 in fuel costs saved for one household per year. (NB: This is a very rough estimate)
That’s the alarm silently providing value (Not literally though 😂).
In design, there is this popular phrase that says “good design is invincible”. This applies to several cases. When things are seamless or almost seamless, we tend to not think about what the scenario or case would be like if some basic amenities weren’t in place or if particular things didn’t exist. Hence not letting us realize the value of the little things.
As a designer a solid source of inspiration for me has always been my environment, this had made it necessary for me to be more aware of the environment and see how designs and amenities beyond the pixels and screens are making our everyday lives easier.
This has also helped me tackle complex problems in specific scenarios from simpler perspectives by thinking out of the box.
So today, Let’s take a moment to appreciate the little thoughtful things within our environment put in place by ourselves, others or even nature for the value they have been providing silently in our daily lives.
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On a personal note... The past few weeks have been quite interesting, I have been working with really cool people building really cool products and I think I’m settling in here quite well. Though still trying to fully understand the processes, people and products, I believe I’m getting there. Thanks to my friendly teammates who have been quite helpful in trying to help me and other “new joiners” settle in.
See you in 2 weeks. Enough yarns, back to building cool things. I wish you have a fabulous week ahead of you.
pizz out ✌🏾
Great read- these tips certainly go a long way.
I really enjoyed reading this, welldone Embee.