Archives / August 2005

I occasionally get asked why this newsletter is in plain text, with no HTML or other decoration.

HTML is a nice idea for e-mail, but plain ASCII text does the job just fine - with no downsides (like compatibility differences) and plenty of upsides (like portability and quick download).

But there's a more accurate reason why I choose plaintext, and it's an idea I cling to with almost religious fervor in my work:

Always try to use the simplest tool to do the job.

Creators who pursue simplicity enjoy several benefits: less expensive development, higher quality output, happier customers, and most importantly, clearer thinking. Even Einstein spoke of this idea (as I quoted on June 27).

Simplicity may not seem relevant in these fast-paced, high-tech times. But pay attention to it: simple products are making a comeback. The technology world is about to undergo a seismic shift, one that will affect most companies, change the balance of power, and bring the Internet to a new level of importance.

Simple, easy, quickly developed Web applications are on their way - and many will generate fierce competition with the old guard: older tools built in an era of customer-unfriendly business models and few competitors.

Why is now the right time for these simple Web apps?

1. There are many more Internet users today than ever before.

2. The average Internet user is becoming more comfortable with using Web-based applications - not just software on the PC.

3. Development tools and environments for Web apps are becoming easier, faster, and more widely available to programmers everywhere.

I could list a bunch of resources to support my case, but here are a few:

http://www.flickr.com - relatively new, very popular photo-sharing site

http://del.icio.us - very new bookmark-sharing service

http://www.rubyonrails.org - popular new rapid development environment

http://www.37signals.com - several easy-to-use tools (using Ruby on Rails)

And of course, 10 Steps to a Hugely Successful Web 2.0 Company:
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2005/08/10_steps_to_a_h.html

I'm happy to enter this world myself, as of today, by officially announcing the first online productivity app from Good Experience: it's called Goovite, and it's the quickest and easiest way online to issue invites.

Try out Goovite: http://www.goovite.com

One main advantage is that you don't need to register with a username and password in order to use the tool, and of course there's no cost. Just go to Goovite, send the invite off, and start tracking RSVPs right away.

And, of course, the e-mails are all in plaintext.

(P.S. Why Goo? Goovite is brought to you by Goo' Experience, "makers of Gel." Have a goo' time :)

Design Within Reach follows up the character of doors (see Aug. 12) with "windows of opportunity" - a survey of many different window designs.

Why is Hollywood in a slump? This New York Times article nails it:

Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal, said Hollywood has been too focused on short-term box office payoff and not focused enough on what he called "the most elemental factor of all" - the satisfaction of the moviegoing experience.

Speaking of naming stores and universities, here's a goodie from a few months back: Steve Manning points to his post on the new Gap brand: Forth & Towne.

Of course, the in-store experience will determine the success of the store, not the name...

Good Experience reader NH pointed me to a fascinating Wall Street Journal article about Vodafone's attempt to make a simpler cell phone (link is free for a week or so): In Mobile Phones, Older Users Say More is Less.

Vodafone's initiative began two years ago, after the company surveyed 5,000 Europeans about what they wanted from a cellphone. What it heard from consumers aged 35 to 55 shocked executives of the Newbury, England, company. Many in that age range didn't know their cellphone numbers or how to use basic functions. One-third, for example, said they didn't know how to tell when they had received a text message. Some thought the envelope icon that signals a message meant their phone bill had arrived...

Many 35- to 55-year-olds also didn't like going into Vodafone retail stores because the young staff -- average age 24 -- talked in acronyms they couldn't understand. These consumers said they weren't interested in the cameras, Internet browsers and many of the other features that are becoming standard on the latest cellphones. "Our biggest customer segment turned round and said: 'You haven't been listening to us,'�" says Guy Laurence, the company's consumer-marketing director. "It was an industry for kids."

This is a brilliant example of customer experience driving change in an organization. Whether you're a designer of phones, a website manager, or the director of a non-profit unrelated to the Web, there are lessons here that you can learn and apply to your work:

1. Listening to customers can reveal a market opportunity that you didn't know about and would never have pursued otherwise.

2. What customers tell you they want may shock you - or your entire organization. It can be painful.

3. Painful though it may be, this is now the only way to do business. The alternative is to allow competitors to snap up the opportunities.

Each lesson depends on listening to customers. You do meet customers, right? Not just surveys or measurement tools, but real live listening sessions?

If you haven't personally talked one-on-one with a customer in the last 12 months, or observed (in person) such an interaction, you're dangerously out of touch with your opportunities for future growth. Learn from Vodafone!

Here's the article. Excerpt:

Names have gained increasing importance in the competitive world
of higher education. As colleges jockey for market share, they
are looking for names that project the image they want or reflect
the changes they hope to make. Trenton State College, for
example, became the College of New Jersey nine years ago when it
began raising admissions standards and appealing to students from
throughout the state.

"All I hear in higher education is, 'Brand, brand, brand,' " said
Tim Westerbeck, who specializes in branding and is managing
director of Lipman Hearne, a marketing firm based in Chicago...

(Previously: Changing the name to Macy's)

The design of a door prepares us for the experience that lies on the other side.

With that in mind, take a peek at Rob Forbes' column on the character of doors. If you just want a visual treat, check out a few pictures of doors.

Mike Krypel points out this new (?) feature in Google search results:

1. Run a search for "memorial"

2. Halfway down the page, note the section "Dissatisfied? See results for: memorial day"

That part of the page is devoted to search results using the new search term. Then, back to the original "memorial" search results.

From the Times today, Wyatt Earp Fought Here, but the Corral Isn't O.K. - about the battle for authenticity in Tombstone, Arizona.

Jonathan Schwartz reports that Sun is moving to a net-promoter metric. (Pity it's written in gray-on-white text, which needs to stop, but otherwise a good column.)

I wrote about net promoter in this past column.

(Thanks, Zimran)

Matt makes a good point: if the media wants to point out the movies, albums, and books with the highest quality, they should point to sales trends instead of raw numbers.

Bad movies often have a big opening, thanks to their marketing budget; that tells customers nothing. What's more interesting is what movie is trending upwards, thanks to word of mouth (thanks to a good experience).

Read the comment here.

Hermetically sealed, antiseptic shopping skyways and tunnels are not generally a good experience. Some forward-looking cities are coming to their senses and tearing down the mistakes of the 1960s: Rethinking Skyways and Tunnels (NYT 8/3/05).

Makes me wonder what architectural mistakes of today people will be tearing down in forty years.

(The complaint about skyways, by the way, is nothing new to architectural critic James Howard Kunstler, a Gel 2003 speaker.)

I've used mice with one, two, and three buttons, and I still prefer my one-button Apple mouse. But what do I know... Apple Computer is introducing the Mighty Mouse, which includes five sensors.

Combine JetBlue (a 2005 Copernican winner), David Rockwell, choreography, and the beloved TWA terminal at JFK, and you get some very interesting experience design:

From this Business Week story:

Taking its cues from the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the stoops of the Big Apple's brownstone neighborhoods, Rockwell imagines replacing an airport's typical plastic tables with stepped, raised platforms for people-watching. With the help of Broadway choreographer Jerry Mitchell, Rockwell plotted the movement of passengers through the terminal. "We looked at dance, because we wanted to create a sense of lightness and airiness," Rockwell says.

(Thanks, Riki!)