happiness. what is happiness? how does one obtain happiness? i just could not grasp the concept. more importantly, since i am a designer, how does the consumer get happy? i guess it’s time to get my board and plug that utp-cable in my left ear [the right is for 5.1 surround] and start surfing.

after riding these waves of html and other carriers for some time i came upon a great article about the pursuit of happiness. i am not talking about the movie, i am talking about the actual pursuit of happiness. and after reading that article, i wanted more coherent knowledge. so i read some more, a lot more. and after all those hours of my precious time, i found a satisfactory answer. and i will present it to you. and mix some design and creativity into it, as usual.

however, don’t think the image above is a dead giveaway. let me tell you beforehand: obtaining happiness, as a consumer, is not obtained by the sheer amount of money. though money does fit into the equation…

recent studies have shown that when people are confronted with many options in something they, for example, wish to buy, there is a great chance they will be unhappy with their choice. this is because with so many choices, we create expectations, high expectations. and when we finally make a choice and buy that product, we have a tendency to become less happy with it. mostly because out of all the options, there is great likelihood there would have been a better choice. thus the higher expectations.

now you might wonder why having that many choices to find something that suits you to the most perfect degree does not spawn happiness. let’s compare it to having no choice at all: if you have no choice in that which is presented to you, how ever bad the product may be, you will eventually grow to like it. this is a fact. in the beginning you might hate it, blame the world for this product, but you’ll change. if you had a choice from many options, you can only blame the choice-maker: you. thus you become unhappy.

so what does this mean for us? a lot actually. to create more happiness you, the consumer, can make it easier on yourself by buying products where you’ll be presented with less options and versions. this will eventually make you happier. you are forcing yourself to get happy, even if the choice at first can make you unhappy. which is a difficult phase to overcome at first.

for the designers this means reducing the number of options on products. but this will go against everything customization stands for. we will not be able to buy things that are customized to our needs. something which can also spawn happiness, when having something no other has.
but i have found a solution to this problem. this solution does not only create more happiness among the consumers, it will also create an instant boom in our economy, and create the next big revolution in design.

in order to make everybody happy we, the designers, have to create true pieces of innovation. no product can be alike. nothing must be the same. there must be as little choice as possible for the consumer. because it will ultimately create happiness among the public.
the only downside to this approach is with such an abundance in different products, we create a new array of options, thus the problem returns. and forcing yourself to be innovative in every way possible is forcing yourself to be creative, which we all know does not work [i told you i would get creativity and design into it]. and let’s just face it: aiming for this kind of innovation is far from reality.

so my brilliant innovative solution will not work. maybe we should not try to be happy, and just do as we wish, whatever the outcome. but then i have not made any point at all. which is not gonna work out for me [resulting in my share of insomnia].

after some profound thinking, i have come to the following conclusion: in order for us to be happy, we need to blame anything or anyone other than ourselves for the choices we make [something we have become quite proficient at]. but to de-stress the things around us i have found the perfect product. it’s small, portable, we all have one, it never fails, it does not need electricity and the execution takes almost no effort at all. remember the image…

the product to answer all you questions, make all your decisions and take all your wrath without vengeance is a simple coin [i told you happiness would come with some form of money, didn't i?]. the only thing you need to do is just flip the coin and let faith decide!

and for those of you not satisfied with this “limited” answer to the overall pursuit of happiness; the coin can also act as a guide throughout your biggest journey in obtaining happiness: life. or does that sound way too lame?

what do you think? heads or tail? or just simply chose to be happy?

jan van der asdonk is a contributor to studio469 in the shape of his creative spamming, manifesting itself in his somewhat distorted views and theories of the world around him. feedback, topic requests and fan mail are all very welcome at jan@studio469.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 12:59 and is filed under Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.