#web strategy

How do we align our website with our corporate objectives? How do we spend our resources? How do we measure our return on investment? What do our customers think of our website? How do I prioritize our projects? What future technologies do I need to be aware of?

The Innovation

The Adopters

Communication Channels

Time

A Social System

Customer Value, in place of Product.

Cost, in place of Price.

Convenience, in place of Place.

Curious to see what the future of artificial intelligence could mean for a key aspect of my craft, I asked Chat-GPT for some feedback.

Using history as a guide, the prompt I put to it was:

Consider the history of pianos over the last one hundred years and compare it with that of player pianos over the same time period. What applicable lessons can designers learn about the impact player pianos had on the career of pianists?

ChatGPT responded:

Over the last 100 years, both traditional pianos and player pianos have experienced significant changes, influenced by technology, cultural shifts, and consumer demand. Comparing their histories provides valuable lessons for designers regarding automation’s impact on skilled professions.

Comparison of Traditional and Player Pianos (1925–2025)

Popularity and Cultural Role

Traditional pianos have remained a staple in professional music performance, education, and composition. Despite fluctuations in sales, the instrument has persisted due to its expressive range and deep integration into classical and contemporary music.

Player pianos, which peaked in the early 20th century as a form of home entertainment, declined sharply after the advent of the radio and phonograph. However, they saw a resurgence with digital reproducing pianos (e.g., Yamaha Disklavier), which now serve niche roles in performance playback, education, and recording.

Technological Advancements

Acoustic pianos saw improvements in materials, design, and digital augmentation (e.g., hybrid pianos with MIDI capabilities).

Player pianos transitioned from mechanical roll-based systems to sophisticated digital reproductions that can capture and play back nuanced performances.

Impact on Pianists' Careers

The early 20th-century fear that player pianos would replace live pianists was largely unfounded. Instead, the technology expanded access to music but did not diminish the value of live performance.

In modern times, digital reproducing pianos have allowed pianists to record performances with precision, aiding in practice, teaching, and even posthumous performances. They serve as tools for musicians rather than replacements.

Lessons for Designers:

Automation Enhances, but Doesn't Replace Player pianos show that automation does not necessarily eliminate skilled professionals but shifts their roles. Designers should aim for augmentation rather than replacement.

Consumer Preferences Matter The decline of mechanical player pianos highlights that convenience and new media formats (radio, recordings) can overshadow automation. Designers should ensure automated tools integrate with evolving consumer habits.

Authenticity Remains Valuable Traditional pianos persisted because human interpretation and live performance remain irreplaceable. Designers should prioritize tools that empower creativity rather than just replication.

Niche Adoption Can Be a Strength Modern reproducing pianos thrive in specific areas like performance analysis and historical preservation. Designers should explore specialized applications rather than only mass adoption.

The history of player pianos suggests that automation in creative fields rarely eradicates traditional skills but instead reshapes how professionals work.

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It would have taken my months and months of visits to the library and conversation with librarians to do the research. And months of reading & note taking time to come to do the analysis to come to these conclusions.

I also doubt that I would have come to these exact same conclusions and my conclusions probably would not have been as concise - at least not at first.

All of that would also have happened over a year or two, since this could not have been a full-time project to carry out.

Instead it took me two minutes to come up with the prompt, a minute to get a reply from the machine and ten minutes to read it's response to my prompt.

All in all, not a bad way to spend twenty minutes, me thinks.

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