Someone once said that your home should be the most comfortable and nurturing place because it is the one place you spend the most time at. While this may be true there is a place that we spend far more time in within our limited lives that is far more important than the houses we live in ... our minds. What always amazes me about the brain is its ability to decipher what is good and bad either by social conditioning or adaptive circumstance. There may be other methods governing preference, survival and comfort but these two probably rank high up in the chain if not at the top of the list fighting for the number one slot.
The reason why I have even bothered to put this post up here on my technically inclined blog is to ask myself and any readers that come here about why certain concepts work and why others simply fade into the night sky? I was never really inspired to ask this question because, to be honest, its something we do involuntarily every time we see a pretty site, buy a new gadget to integrate into our existing slew of gadgets or even when we pick up the phone and call a friend. But lets forget about our social dispositions to preference for a minute and talk more about the technical aspects that truly amaze us. A few years ago, the Nintendo corporation stuck their necks out with a console that was specifically built around the concept of motion sensing. What happened? People went wow for a bit and then it slowly died down till everyone else in the same sphere realized it was something that was still raw and unpolished, waiting to be taken and refined for better use. So, up steps Microsoft, the idea is converted to Kinect and before you know it they are showcasing their upgraded feature with all the marketing pzazz that goes along with the circus show. What happened? Nothing exorbitantly different from when Nintendo did the same thing.
Most people see the problems but not many people see why it all happened in the first place. Was there enough insight? Was enough market research done? Was there a clear direction on the product development? Notice where I am going with all this? While all the above questions always give a clear indication of profit to be made, they never really answer the question of whether the consumer is going to come back to you with arms wide open asking for more (in some cases on their knees too but that's another blog and certainly not welcome here).
And so enters the one word, which when coupled with a question mark almost always stirs the pot and demands answers of the most toughest nature, "Why?". Some people I know generally run away from this question but there are others, very few, that seem to thrive on this word like vultures on a dead carcass. Most people sign up on new sites because their friends are doing or because the rest of the population thinks that it is cool and great to use. After some time they find it cumbersome but they stick with it and why? Because everyone else is using it or it has the most information they need. Very few people personally relate with the products they use in the commercial environment and even fewer do so in the corporate work-space. Bridging this gap clearly makes for a true winning product. Some companies like to think they have the winning formula by either removing certain user demographics from their product goal or by simply knowing that users can't go anywhere else (you know who you are). While this may make for great profits it certainly doesn't make for a killer product that is never going to be replaced. When you start throwing questions like why do they need this? why should we be doing this? why aren't we doing this? why is this working so well and why is it that no one is really leveraging it? Then you can start the creative process of finding the next step in the chain to make things easier.
When building a site/product the questions generated by asking why instead of what are the ones that take the top of the heap. Sadly, most people never ask this question due to time constraints or because the overlord known as the boss simply won't allow it. I encourage most people I know to ask this question because until it is asked you are merely following and not leading.
Is there something you are currently working on that needs a why instead of a what? Post in the comments section and perhaps with a little bit of collaboration we can all help each other.
The reason why I have even bothered to put this post up here on my technically inclined blog is to ask myself and any readers that come here about why certain concepts work and why others simply fade into the night sky? I was never really inspired to ask this question because, to be honest, its something we do involuntarily every time we see a pretty site, buy a new gadget to integrate into our existing slew of gadgets or even when we pick up the phone and call a friend. But lets forget about our social dispositions to preference for a minute and talk more about the technical aspects that truly amaze us. A few years ago, the Nintendo corporation stuck their necks out with a console that was specifically built around the concept of motion sensing. What happened? People went wow for a bit and then it slowly died down till everyone else in the same sphere realized it was something that was still raw and unpolished, waiting to be taken and refined for better use. So, up steps Microsoft, the idea is converted to Kinect and before you know it they are showcasing their upgraded feature with all the marketing pzazz that goes along with the circus show. What happened? Nothing exorbitantly different from when Nintendo did the same thing.
Most people see the problems but not many people see why it all happened in the first place. Was there enough insight? Was enough market research done? Was there a clear direction on the product development? Notice where I am going with all this? While all the above questions always give a clear indication of profit to be made, they never really answer the question of whether the consumer is going to come back to you with arms wide open asking for more (in some cases on their knees too but that's another blog and certainly not welcome here).
And so enters the one word, which when coupled with a question mark almost always stirs the pot and demands answers of the most toughest nature, "Why?". Some people I know generally run away from this question but there are others, very few, that seem to thrive on this word like vultures on a dead carcass. Most people sign up on new sites because their friends are doing or because the rest of the population thinks that it is cool and great to use. After some time they find it cumbersome but they stick with it and why? Because everyone else is using it or it has the most information they need. Very few people personally relate with the products they use in the commercial environment and even fewer do so in the corporate work-space. Bridging this gap clearly makes for a true winning product. Some companies like to think they have the winning formula by either removing certain user demographics from their product goal or by simply knowing that users can't go anywhere else (you know who you are). While this may make for great profits it certainly doesn't make for a killer product that is never going to be replaced. When you start throwing questions like why do they need this? why should we be doing this? why aren't we doing this? why is this working so well and why is it that no one is really leveraging it? Then you can start the creative process of finding the next step in the chain to make things easier.
When building a site/product the questions generated by asking why instead of what are the ones that take the top of the heap. Sadly, most people never ask this question due to time constraints or because the overlord known as the boss simply won't allow it. I encourage most people I know to ask this question because until it is asked you are merely following and not leading.
Is there something you are currently working on that needs a why instead of a what? Post in the comments section and perhaps with a little bit of collaboration we can all help each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment