Sometimes we get so focused on what intrigues us, that we forget about the user experience. This short but telling snippet by Andrew Pace writing for the American Library Association points out how focusing on the user experience is what wows prospective customers. He writes about the latest offerings shown at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting:

"Of course, search and discovery is only the first step in the traditional library experience. Self-checkout and RFID have gone from marginal technologies to mainstream in just a few years. Self-checkout stations certainly don't look like they used to. Bulky and clumsy hardware has been replaced by ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing machines like the new V-Series system from 3M."

Notice that there's no discussion about frequencies, active vs. passive, or Gen 2 standards in his review. Not that the technical issues aren't important -- they're critically important.

But, they're not what pushes the end user's buttons. What the end user notices is the "ergonomic" design and the "aesthetically pleasing machines."

End users --particularly those in non-technical industries such as libraries -- expect technology to work. That's a given for them.

But it's not what turns them on. And it's not what drives sales.

To really drive adoption of RFID-enabled products, the focus in marketing literature and sales pitches needs to be on benefits, not technology features. And it needs to be in non-technospeak.

Check out the 3M website's RFID library solutions page and you will see it focuses on the end-user benefits, not on the technology.