Products Are People Too
Image: MacBook Pro Unpacking photoset by *nathan, via unboxing.com.
Apple’s good design for experience hooks is well known.
Unboxing is a threshold we cross with most products, though it’s rarely celebrated enough.
I found this Flickr photo set from a website which does know how to celebrate the experience, unboxing.com. Unboxing.com is a site which recognises the importance of the threshold, and that people want to celebrate this experience hook somehow. They post people’s unboxing stories, in the form of photographs.
There’s something quite pornographic about the way the polystyrene is photographed. And tantalising about the way the plug and power cord are shot just before they’re plugged in. It works because it’s meaningful—because they’ve paid attention to this experience hook, we know – we assume – they’ve paid attention to it all.