The Tyranny of the Average User

There is a phantom haunting the boardrooms of Britain. A ghost that dictates policy, strangles innovation, and ensures that most new products are mildly disappointing.

This phantom is called the "Average User."

We are told, with terrifying seriousness, to design for this person. To find the precise middle of the bell curve and aim all our efforts there. This, we are assured, is the 'sensible' way to capture the biggest market. The only trouble?

This person does not exist. They are a statistical chimera, a spreadsheet fudge. And in designing for this mythical 'no one in particular,' we create experiences that are, almost without fail, satisfying to precisely no one.

If you wish to see this tyranny in action, I present the common hotel shower.

Consider the sheer, baffling malevolence of its design. It's a device seemingly calibrated by a committee of people who had only ever had 'showering' described to them. The controls are a masterpiece of ambiguity, requiring a degree of code-breaking that would impress Bletchley Park. The temperature arc usually swings from 'arctic tundra' to 'molten magma' with no discernible pause in between.

It's designed, one assumes, for the 'average' human. The result is that it's mildly inconvenient and baffling for everyone, and utterly impossible for some. Most people simply sigh, accept the friction, and get on with their day. They’ve become numb to it.

But when you navigate the world with the perspective my "battlefield" experience grants you, you don't just see friction. You see a design crime. You see the absurdity in a system that, in the name of 'logic', creates a bad experience for 100% of its users, all in the name of… well, what, exactly? Avoiding the 'extremes'?

The Innovation at the 'Edge'

Here is the counter-intuitive truth: The real magic, the real ingenuity, doesn't happen in the comfortable, data-smoothed middle. It happens at the 'edge'.

The most brilliant solutions in human history have almost never come from solving for the 'average'. They come from solving for the specific, often challenging, 'edge case'.

My favourite example? The OXO Good Grips vegetable peeler. This icon of design wasn't born from a spreadsheet asking "What does the average 25-45 year old want from a kitchen utensil?" It was born because the designer, Sam Farber, watched his wife, who had arthritis, struggle painfully with a standard, unforgiving peeler.

He solved for her hand. He solved for the 'edge'.

And what was the result of this shift in focus? He created a peeler with a thick, rubbery, absurdly comfortable handle. He didn't just solve the problem for his wife; he created a product that was, paradoxically, superior for everyone. That chunky grip was better for people with perfect mobility. It was better when your hands were wet. It was better for children. In solving for the 'extreme', he created a category-defining product of immense delight for the 'centre'.

You Are the Focus Group

This is the entire philosophy we champion at Rise Beyond Barriers. The world believes that "limitation" is a deficit. This is a catastrophic failure of framing. It isn't a deficit. It's a powerful diagnostic tool.

As disabled entrepreneurs, we are living at the edge. We don't need to commission a focus group to find the friction; we are the focus group. We see the hotel shower, the baffling app interface, or the absurdly heavy door for what it is: a failure of imagination. And a spectacular opportunity.

So, I implore you: stop building for the beige, forgettable average. Stop trying to please the statistical ghost. The "tyranny of the average" is a recipe for a business no one will remember.

Instead, find the friction. Look to the edges. Solve for a real, specific, human problem. The fundamental truth is that in solving for the 'one,' you will almost certainly create something delightful for the many.