All projects: Gel, Good Todo, Games, Uncle Mark, Bit Literacy
Archives / March 2011
How Tiny Wings took over my iPhone
At left, the new iPhone game soaring to the heights: Tiny Wings. I listed it on the good iPhone games list a few weeks ago and it has quickly supplanted all others as my game of choice on the iPhone. Simple but hard to master, cute but not twee, addictive but only in minute-or-so increments - the model of a good experience for an iPhone game.
(iPad users, don't feel left out - here's the good iPad games list.)
There is no "try" in good experience
MIT professor emeritus Woody Flowers, from a recent profile in Technology Review:
"The difference between reading a book about design and doing a design yourself and seeing what happens is really important," he says. "Yoda said, 'Do or do not. There is no try.' Likewise, you can't pretend to design things ... You can't pretend to be an engineer. To become an engineer, you have to do something."
I'd say the same about creating a good customer experience, or even researching whether an experience (user experience, customer experience, etc.) is good. Reading a book is one thing, but actually getting into the experience is another.
If you want to learn about good experience, seek out a good experience.
If you want to learn whether a customer experience is good, go watch people as they experience it.
In experience, the most direct path is the best.
Can you be a good manager with a cluttered inbox?
A recent report from the consulting firm McKinsey argues that digital technology has a "dark side" - namely, "information overload and its close cousin, attention fragmentation." That fragmentation is dangerous because managers need to
synthesize information from many different sources, reflect on its implications for the organization, apply judgment, make trade-offs, and arrive at good decisions.
Think for a moment about that phrase - "many different sources." A manager today may have streams of bits constantly arriving from email, texts, Twitter, blogs, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, RSS, Quora, Foursquare, and email, email, email, email...
Some people claim that none of this bothers them, since they're "good at multitasking" - a statement that also subtly reminds us that they're cognitively stronger and faster than their peers.
I'd suggest the opposite. If you want to find out how fragmented someone's thinking might be, just check the number of emails in their inbox. If your job is to "synthesize information from many different sources," and the inbox alone has 3,000 items asking for attention, by definition the synthesis won't be easy.
Now I wrote many of these ideas four years ago in my book Bit Literacy - but just in the last few months I've noticed more people seeking some kind of relief. I get emails almost daily from readers saying that they've put the methods into practice and are finally feeling liberated from the weight of the many bits coming at them.
More books have arrived recently, too, to describe how we got into this mess:
• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, by James Gleick, was just published - to unanimously positive reviews - and now sits in the Amazon top 100. (A copy also sits on my shelf at home - can't wait to dive in.)
• Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, by Alex Wright, also took a historical perspective, back in 2008.
• Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, by William Powers, came out last year. Again, interesting historical perspective, but in my book review I pointed out that it didn't offer much of a solution, as promised by the subtitle.
Even with these well-written works, I'm still concerned for the manager - really, anyone with an email account - who finds it increasingly difficult to make decisions and maintain boundaries between life and work, with so many digital distractions. Where does it end? I can imagine people thinking, as their inbox grows more cluttered by the day. A tips-n-tricks approach won't work; only a systemic solution will.
I'm biased toward my own (send action items to a todo list, file or delete everything else, then the inbox is empty and you work from the todo list)... but there are others. Whatever one chooses, it's now an inescapable fact of working today: to be effective, managers need some solution to information overload.
From Sloppy Info, The WSJ gets sloppy with census data.
New - Good Todo Android app
Happy to announce that my online todo list, Good Todo, now has an Android app.
There's also an iPhone and iPad app.
For those following the RSS feed, I've updated the Flickr post from yesterday. Thanks to the readers for pointing out the correction!
Where not to put the most important link... on Flickr
I've never understood why I have to hunt around to post a photo on Flickr. Uploading photos on Flickr is like writing a post on Twitter, or typing a search query on Google - it's the lifeblood of the entire service.
Imagine if the "New tweet" function on Twitter was hidden away in a submenu, 12 options down from the top. That's where Flickr has put its most important link:
Someone needs to hire Creative Good!
Update March 23: Several readers in the comments and on Twitter pointed out that I left out the Upload link in the upper-right. Strangely, years into using Flickr I had never noticed that link, however long it's been there. There's also a third link, marked "New", atop the advertising on the right. See all three links below:
With all that said, I'll still argue that Flickr is hiding its most important feature from its users. If you need three redundant links on the homepage to remind people about what you really want them to click, there's a problem in the design.
Here's how Twitter presents its main feature:
Notice that Twitter also has several menus, features, and other secondary elements - yet the main feature is called out visually. It's impossible to miss what Twitter wants you to do. And there's no reason for a redundant link.
Your industry has the wrong name
No matter what industry you work in, it's called the wrong thing:
• "Technology industry" is a misnomer. It should be called "dealing-with-people-as-they-deal-with-technology industry."
• "Healthcare industry" is a misnomer. It should be called "dealing-with-people-as-they-deal-with-health-issues industry."
• "Travel industry" is a misnomer. It should be called "dealing-with-people-as-they-deal-with-travel industry."
To create a good customer experience, you need to see your job as dealing with people as they deal with your field of work.
How to achieve creative success? 3 examples
A few thoughts on achieving creative success.
• Phil Terry writes that 52 times is the charm for Angry Birds. Rovio, the company that created the super-successful Angry Birds app, created 51 games before hitting paydirt with their 52nd. Patience, persistence, customer focus, long-term thinking, and luck all conspired to make it work.
• Neil Diamond was recently inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. In this profile, NPR points out the importance of voice:
In a 2005 interview with WHYY's Fresh Air, Diamond said he wasn't any good at emulating someone else's voice and experience in a song."That's probably why I spent eight years down there in Tin Pan Alley and had very little success," he said. "There was not a lot of me in those songs."
Success finally came in 1966, when Diamond got the chance to give voice to his own words and music.
" 'Solitary Man' was the first in a long line of 'me' songs, my experience songs," he said.
• In this post, novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias offers advice that could apply to creators in any discipline, not just writers.
Don't write what you know.Don't write what you love to read.
Don't write what publishers are looking for.
Don't write what critics are hailing.
Don't write what your creative writing teacher claims is the only form of literature that is still dynamic.
Write what horrifies you, write what charms you, write what repels you, write what you love, write, to be aphoristic, what you cannot stop yourself from writing.
Yes, you will have to find "your voice," and yes, you will have to learn the craft of writing, which is endlessly demanding and so varied that you will probably never feel you are more than a clumsy student. And don't limit yourself to study only the craft necessary to produce your particular kind of writing. Also learn how the writers you have contempt for do what they do; you may discover something useful for your work.
But all of those necessary skills are servants to your Lord and Master: write what you cannot stop yourself from thinking about, even if it disgusts everyone you know.
P.S. Bonus example, for anyone who listens to the WTF podcast with Marc Maron: in the interview (premium registration req'd), Judd Apatow describes finding his voice when he finally began to tell stories from his own experience.
Carbonite sponsors Gel; we suggest theme song
I'm happy to announce that Carbonite (providing online backup services) is a sponsor of our upcoming Gel 2011 conference.
Interestingly, The Gregory Brothers - creators of Auto Tune the News, and presenters at Gel 2010 - recently created what could be a theme song for Carbonite: Backin' Up.
And below is my favorite cover version of the song, by Canadian band Walk Off The Earth:
Walk Off The Earth: the new Aerosmith?
The good customer experience at Starbucks and Warby Parker
Let me admit upfront that I'm not a die-hard Starbucks customer. I prefer little local coffee shops owned by people in the neighborhood. But if I need coffee on the road or in an airport somewhere, and Starbucks is the only option, then you'll find me at the counter, trying to remember the right word for "small" in Starbuckese. (I think you have to ask for a "gigantic" to get a small coffee. Something like that.) But the people behind the counter are generally nice and the coffee, if a bit overpriced, is perfectly decent.
Beyond my personal preferences, I find Starbucks fascinating as a case study in customer experience. So many different aspects were designed, just so, to appeal to the person walking through the door: from the interior design colors to the choice of music, from the names of the sizes (in Starbuckese) to the faux-chalkboard signs showing the specials. And the wifi, the cross-promoted products, the (usually good) attitude of the baristas, and so on.
This formula began to fail a few years back, however, as Starbucks focused on growth rather than delivering a good customer experience. CEO Howard Schultz publicly announced his intent to create strategic change, and today it seems to be working: key numbers last quarter were up from the year before.
In this Wall Street Journal interview, Schultz explains the secret to the success. (Emphasis mine.)
WSJ: What led to the turnaround?
Schultz: Putting our feet in the shoes of our customers, understanding what they were dealing with and the anxiety of the [financial] crisis. In addition to that, getting our own people to understand what was at stake and specifically asking them to be more accountable. We were growing the company with such speed and aggression that we lost sight of the customer experience.
Starbucks is lucky. Many companies, if they lose sight of the customer experience, are gone in a heartbeat. Starbucks was big enough that it could afford to take the time to recover.
Other companies can't afford to make that mistake. They have to start focused on the customer experience, then stay focused on the customer experience, in order to survive. Customers today will switch - and tell each other to switch - to any company that really serves them well.
One such example is Warby Parker, profiled in Daily Artifacts, a startup eyeglass retailer that has a strategy based on the customer experience. This isn't just pretty design for the glasses. Much like how Starbucks addresses many aspects of the experience, Warby Parker is focused on the customer experience in "supply chain management, materials, design, strategy, and customer service."
The winners in coming years will be those companies focused on good experience in all aspects - and maintain that focus with vigilance.
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P.S. For my own part, at my Gel conference I try to deliver on many different aspects of the attendee experience. Here's an interview I gave to Conference Basics about some of those details. (And yes, I hope to see you next month at Gel 2011!)
P.P.S. For any company that wants to focus on the customer experience, a good way to start is to hire Creative Good.
Economist gives peek at Gel 2011 theme
A recent Economist article gives a sneak peek toward the not-yet-announced theme for Gel 2011 next month:
"All the interesting problems cross boundaries," says David Ellwood, the dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Some straddle borders. Some straddle disciplines. Some require co-operation between business, government, academia and non-profit groups. "So you have to train people to cross boundaries," Mr Ellwood concludes. Leaders need "an incredible curiosity" and a capacity to listen, he says.
Noah Scalin: Gel is an "amazing experience"
Noah Scalin, creator of Skull-A-Day, says that Gel is an amazing experience that is well worth the investment.
Hope to see you at Gel 2011. (See also Noah's video from Gel 2009 about creativity, constraints, and community.)
Packaging or contents?
From a GQ piece explaining why Hollywood movies have gotten bad since the success of the expertly packaged Top Gun:
If movies were now seen as packages, then the new kings of the business would be marketers, who could make the wrapping on that package look spectacular even if the contents were deficient.
What would you rather work on?
Interesting tidbits of sloppy info.
How to beat Facebook: build a better experience
If you want to take the lead, build a better experience than the leader. This means finding the key unmet needs (of users, customers, readers, whoever) and delivering an experience that delivers on those.
This approach would work - some day, inevitably, will work - for whatever company wants to overtake Facebook.
In this post Gina Trapani states it well:
Facebook is king of the social networking hill because Zuckerberg is a great editor with a sharp eye for product. When he was building Facebook, he looked at the leading social networks at the time--Friendster and MySpace--and purposefully exploited their weaknesses. Friendster was constantly down; MySpace was ugly. So Zuck made Facebook's design white and clean, launched it only at Harvard first, and scaled to other universities slowly to keep the site fast, stable, and reliable at all times.Similarly, to beat Facebook at social you have to look at its faults, and capitalize on them. Facebook's Achilles heel is the way it forces its worldview on its users. On Facebook, you can only "like" something. You can't love it, or hate it, or say it made you laugh, or made you sad, or unequivocally recommend it to your friends, or recommend it with some caveats.
A few months ago a new service called Diaspora got a lot of press attention for being a potential "Facebook-killer" (though that was the press's narrative - the creators never, to my knowledge, presented themselves that way). I joined early on through supporting their Kickstarter project and have watched the site with interest since it launched. It still seems early stage, as I haven't managed to figure out enough about the experience. (Someone in the know, please educate me!)
Update: Facebook is valued at $117 per "Like", according to Daily Artifacts.
The pinnacle of the Internet
Ken Jennings answered a ton of reader questions today, including a request for a limerick, prompting one user to write:
Well, this is it. The pinnacle of the internet. It's all downhill from here, boys. You will all be able to tell your grandkids about this moment when they ask 'What was the internet like when you were young?' And you can say, I remember the day the internet had its greatest moment. It was the day that Jeopardy superhero Ken Jennings visited Reddit and wrote a limerick about Alex Trebek that also referenced Conan and Star Trek. And then you can direct them to a link purportedly containing the poem, but will really just play a Rick Astley song.
That about sums it up. (via)
Why restaurant websites are so bad
The reason restaurant websites are so bad, writes the Boston Globe, is that designers follow whatever trends are fashionable at the moment:
For a designer, looking at a website is like counting the rings on a tree trunk -- it's easy to pinpoint its age ... For designers and users, the emphasis now is on accessibility. Websites have to be easy to navigate, for computer users as well as people on smartphones and tablets.
Nice to see accessibility become trendy! But designers are still interested in making an "emotional connection" via a simple online brochure, so we'll be sure to see more overdesigned sites in the future. As the Globe puts it:
But in the move to simplicity, designers stress the importance of not taking it too far. A restaurant website doesn't just exist to communicate information. It's a marketing tool, and it helps create an atmosphere. "You are connecting with people on an emotional level,'' Gesuero says. "It helps drive their decision to go to that restaurant. There are ways to have something rich and give an awesome, unique experience that maintains some level of timelessness.''
Behold the awesome timelessness of driving directions and hours of operation.
See also Never said about restaurant websites and this McSweeney's piece.
Update: Thanks to Éric Chamberland, in the comments, for pointing out Oatmeal piece and the xkcd comic below:
Update 2: See also Have It Your Way? Purist Chefs Won't Have It in which we learn that some of New York's top chefs won't defer to customer requests. Could it be that some chefs believe they "know better" online, too?
