Essay
I used to stumble from one exciting project to
another. Repeating time after time the same cycle
of designing the beginning (on-boarding) and middle
(us ag e) of t he con su me r e x p e r ience.
Then a blind spot emerged for me. At first it was more
of a quirk I noticed. An insight as a result of a personal
experience leaving a bad service. I wanted to end it but
not in a dry, cold way by cancelling the subscription. I
wanted emotional closure. I hated the service so much,
it would not be complete without a satisfactory conclusion.
An ending that was reflective, emotional and potentially
revengeful. My understanding and vocabulary at the
time – in 2004 – was limited. I wrongly thought the lack
of endings was a consequence of some hard-nosed
business logic. How wrong I was.
T his itch of an insight went on to gain momentum over
the months and years of research. It turned into an
obsession. I spent hours and hours delving into the
spheres of sociology, psychology and consumer history.
The blind spot evolved into an enormous hole of absent
endings, centuries in the making.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
CONSUMER ENDS
The plague arrived in Italy on a boat in 1347. (Wait,
what? You’re going back that far? Yes. Stay with me.)
Within three years it had decimated Europe, killing a
third of the population. Out of this chaos arose new
challenger religions. One was the Protestants, who had
different ideas about how we should live our lives. Among
these changes were three things that shifted attitudes
about consumption, income and purpose.
The first one was fasting. Most religions have a period
of organised fasting in the religious calendar. But Martin
Luther removed this early on in the Protestant religion.
Fasting provides an opportunity for consumers to remove
themselves from the abundance of life and reflect upon
it. It is a powerful skill. Lost in the allure and speed of
modern consumerism, we would do well to revisit this.
Instead we have acceleration days like Black Friday.
The second was jobs. In the dominant Catholic religion,
there were three good jobs: a pope, a priest and a nun
(that sounds like the beginning of a joke... focus, moveTYING UP LOOSE ENDS
Illustration by Kym WintersINDUSTRY INSIGHTJoe Macleod tells us why he started the world’s first
business focusing on the end of customer relationships and why you
need to make an end for your product today