Best foot Sideward

Managing Simplicity

"Managing Complexity" is discussed a lot. There's complexity in user interfaces, engineering architecture, business process, organizational structure, business models, professional relationships, personal relationships etc. We get lost in the complexity if we don't manage it well.

In the last decade or so, there has been a definite trend toward simplicity. There has been a movement to manage complexity through simplicity. Take these examples

1. One big button iPhone
2. Simple subscription model for unlimited song downloads through the Zune pass.
3. Google home page with one text box and a Search button
4. Micro blogging through Twitter

Clearly these concepts are simple, easy to understand and use. But how simple is simple enough without being insufficient? (On a related note, this is an interesting article about Win7). There is a need is to be Managing Simplicity^TM.What does managing simplicity mean?

Consider these questions for simplicity of user interfaces,

1. What does simple mean? Is it number or clicks to a target (or) the time taken to accomplish something (or) is it a deeper concept?
2. Which customer segment should your product be designed to be simple for? Will this segment pay for your product?
3. Will a competitor be able to provide an enhanced service through a slightly more cluttered user interface and beat you? (Consider www.google.com vs. www.searchme.com)
4. Is the right approach to break a product into sub products when they don't truly fit together? Drawing an analogy with a software best practice to break functions/methods into sub functions/methods whenever possible.

Consider these questions for simplicity of API interfaces,

1. Do developers need simplicity in API? If so what does it mean?
2. If the API is more powerful than in-house UI, will your satellite applications be more useful than your own product (think Twitter applications vs. Twitter itself). If so what is the platform business model?
3. If you want products built on your API to also be usable/simple as your own user interface, how does this get built into your API? Or does it need to get built into the review process? Or will it simply be selection of the fittest.

Consider these questions for simplicity of hardware interfaces,

1. How important is simplicity in hardware? (Consider the one button iPhone vs. the several buttons Blackberry)
2. If you have an application ecosystem as well, how does hardware simplicity affect power of applications to be built on it (Consider that the one button iPhone doesn't work well with some applications)
3. If the hardware interface is too simple, is there an overload of combinations to be remembered? (think XXY, XXXX, YYXY in Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox 360 controller)

OK, I've just got questions for this post. More thoughts on Managing Simplicity^TM later. I'm trying to keep my posts small and build upon. Comment away!

PS: I took the liberty to add a trademark to Managing Simplicity because a web search on 3 major search engines returned nothing substantial. I'm beginning to doubt that's not how it works :)

Consume, Communicate, Comment, Convey, Create, Collaborate?

Web applications such as Facebook, Wikipedia, Digg, Twitter etc. clearly thrive on user generated content. Let's sidestep the issue of actually monetizing these for this post. And look instead at what drives the ecosystem. There appear to be 5 Cs in motion. Consume, Communicate, Comment, Convey, Create. And these are actions users take in these applications in increasing order of difficulty/time consumption. I believe there is one C missing (if you haven't gotten a hint from the title) and that is to Collaborate.

Most users obviously consume information. At least one web search a day of mine goes into Wikipedia. I read and exit the website. On Facebook, I consume my friends' pictures, status updates, whereabouts etc. This is the easiest at the same time the most valuable per time spent.

Quite a few users communicate on these sites. We write on friends walls, we send each other messages and we setup event pages. In Twitter, we communicate our state at the moment. This is one where the fruit of the action is not realized until/unless someone reads our communication and/or takes action. Communication is a basic need of a social being and thereby is a common action.

Commenting takes time, takes thought and takes courage. I'll get to why it takes courage in just a second. We comment on friend's status updates, posted items, photos. We comment on Flickr photos. We comment on blog posts. Commenting takes time and takes thought. To comment usually means to have consumed, understood and created opinion. And to state one's opinion publicly takes courage.

One way of defining Conveying in this context - To take information from one point and paraphrase (or not) into a different context. We post news article links/video links/opinion links on Facebook. We Digg links we like, thereby conveying information to a different audience. Conveying happens after consumption, but requires the almost extraordinary step of wanting to share. Now, there can be several reasons to share (excitement, breaking news, altruism, known external interest, attention wanting, spamming prone). But the prerequisite is to have consumed information outside the medium we are posting in. And this takes a lot of effort and time.

Creating is no doubt the most difficult, time consuming of these all. We create notes on Facebook. Developers creat applications for Facebook. Developers create Twitter apps. Wikipedia contributors create/edit articles for free. Wikipedia moderators keep the noise out. Creation is several levels more difficult than even conveying as it requires original thought (in most cases) and the creative ability to put it in a consumable form. Also, by creating a user displays extraordinary courage and conviction in their work and is open to criticism.

I believe there is a 6th C that is yet untapped in all of these. That is to collaborate. Wikipedia taps it to a certain extent as users can edit others posts. But think of the possibilities here! Think of Facebook users coming together to collaborate on a thesis/invention. Think of Twitter users coming together to collaborate on raising money for the poor. Imagine if in Digg, I could customize my news stories to only include Diggs from certain clans of users who form through an overlaid social network. Imagine Orkut users in a certain neighborhood coming together to setup a neighborhood watch. All of these are not impossible. But they need a collaboration engine to be created that has incentives for such activities to take place. An analogy - Wikipedia created an engine to let creation and moderation be a breeze. Facebook created an engine to let online application development and usage a breeze. Now, can we create an engine that makes instant, productive (1+1 > 2) and results driven collaboration possible?

Make it Easy

I heard a song called Make it Easy by the Barenaked Ladies and it seemed to strike a chord elsewhere. I realized that any product decision we make should be about making it easy for consumers. This makes even more sense in this day where consumers have very little time to pay attention, troubleshoot, do all over again etc. Everyone is busy these days - doing their day job, updating their social network profiles, doing budgets, catching a missed episode on Hulu, sitting in traffic, investing etc. The more time we demand of them to learn about a product, the less likely they are to choose to buy it and even less likely to talk about it to their friends. Making it easy manifests itself in 3 ways as described below.

Make it Easy to see value:

It must be brain dead simple to see value in your product. It must be immediately obvious what the product can do to our lives. How the product will enhance our well being. If it can help the greater good of mankind even better! Basically, the product should speak for itself with little need for a marketing effort. An example would be an IM service that sends money to charity whenever you chat. It is immediately obvious why this is a good idea! Or a guitar whose frets light up for in built practice songs. You go to a store and you see the lights blinking in time with a song, you know its a must have for your budding musician.

Make it Easy to get value:

It must be really simple to use the product and get value out of it. A product that frees up a few minutes/hours of a person's time is very likely to be close to their heart. Intuit's TurboTax does an awesome job of just simplifying the average person's tax return generation to an essentially brain dead series of instructions! I used the extra hours I saved to make a grilled cheese sandwich ... well burning a couple ... setting off the fire alarm ... cleaning up afterward etc.

Make it Easy to create value:

These days, consumers aren't just consumers. They are producers as well. Can your product let them create something of value that is useful for other consumers? For example Ning lets you create your own social network. Imagine the power of that! You don't just consume a social network, but you can create a niche social network and enjoy a vibrant social community that Ning provides. Another example - Going back to the fret lighting up guitar. If the guitar provides an easy way to save the songs you play into a fret lighting up format, you can upload it and provide a simple lesson online to anyone that wants to learn! When consumers feel like they contribute through your product, they feel good!