Control, Convenience, and Control of Convenience

A snatch of conversation I couldn't help overhearing has got me thinking about two distinctly different approaches to the use of technology: control and convenience. My gut reaction is that the second is ultimately of greater value than the first, but that the notion of empowerment and control merits some consideration.

The bit of dialogue, or perhaps monologue, was about the use if cell phones to monitor houseplants - the person speaking was going on about how much he would like to be able to wire his home to his iPhone, install a sensor that would tell him when the lawn needed watering so he could get an instant message and press a button to feed the grass.

Aside of the obvious psychological issues, it seemed to me a half-baked idea: it the point of technology is to alleviate us of the necessity of annoying but necessary little tasks, wouldn't a better system use a hygrometer that communicates directly with a sprinkler system? That way, when the grass needs watering, it gets watered - without having to interrupt my day and require me even to push a button?

(Granted, the flaw in the notion is that a fully-automated system might put on the sprinklers at any given moment - but it should be simple enough to rig the system to water only at times when I'd be unlikely to be in the lawn, or have an override I could use on the rare occasions I'd be there - but that's entirely perpendicular to the thread.)

It struck me that these two perspectives, control and convenience, are quite common, and are largely matters of consumer preference. While I'd like to think that using technology to make a task easier is just a stepping stone on the path to making the task unnecessary, there's no denying that certain people prefer to have some modicum of control.

Perhaps it would be accurate to say that each person has differing preferences for different products: I'd be delighted by a system that transferred funds between checking and savings accounts to maximize interest earnings (a notion I've proposed to bankers, who took absolutely zero interest in the idea) but am entirely leery of a system that would automate the management of my investment portfolio (a system I have produced, in spite of the sense that I was doing something that would ultimately be unappealing and disadvantageous to consumers). So I want convenience in some tasks, control over others, and I don't sense that everyone would be in agreement about the level of control/convenience in every situation.

Ultimately, it's a product design decision that will lead to consumer preference of one solution or another - though ideally, a product would be designed to enable the customer to indicate and implement their own preferences for convenience or control.

While I still have the sense that control is still a step on the evolutionary path toward convenience, I also have to admit that not every consumer is comfortable making the transition from one to the other in every situation. Perhaps it's that I'm not yet ready to concede the point.