[This is a re-post
(originally posted on 12 Jan 2013) with minor edits, deleted the original post
by mistake.]
Now, let’s switch
to something more practical from the previous ‘principles’ posts.
Until internet
search, carrying out searches were onerous, looking through directories,
reference books, hobbyist magazines, making trips to the library, calling
around. Until social media, it was
practically impossible to keep in close touch with several degrees of family
ties. Until the introduction of online
payment, it was troublesome to sort through your pile of bills and pay at
various locations. The functional task
of looking for things is now simpler.
From function, simplicity has now moved on to a bigger platform. Before the web, the internet was used mostly
by the professionals. Now grandmothers
use the computer. Online services have
since become even easier to use. This
merely continued the trend towards simplification.
The origin of the
internet may have something to do with this.
Any network engineer will tell that tcp/ip, the software system that
runs the internet, was the simplest of designs during the time it was invented. Subsequent software designed for this early
internet has kept with the simplicity philosophy as with the web. It is now the culture of the internet to keep
things simple. And simplicity is still
in the growth stage! The first
generation of the web online services is easy to use but the second generation
post-dot.com online companies have accelerated it.
One of them,
Square, is redefining the online credit card payment system through
simplicity. And was the blank page
design popular before Google search?
Compare hotel booking sites with Airbrb today. The uncluttered clean look in this case tends
toward extreme simplicity. It is about
user experience. Even if the homepage
has additional content, you have to scroll down the almost stark page to get to
it, as though telling you, get on with booking the room. The aim is minimal distraction. Compare this to internet 1.0 model of trying
to fill the web page to the brim, probably because the business model then was
to maximise eyeballs or it followed the obvious model for content then, the
newspapers. In case you are asking, this
is relevant because if your organisation is using the internet to conduct
business, your website is the proxy. And
rather than simply a presence as it was before (internet 1.0), it is now the
business face. And for others, it is the
business. Of course the empty look
cannot apply to all online sites. It
will be a strange newspaper if it did!
The point for sites like AirBrb is to minimise, focus, be exacting,
straight to selling a room, minimise distractions. Interestingly, digg, a new generation news
site has similarities closer to the clean look compared to the traditional
newspaper sites.
The minimising
approach works. More are adopting the zen look.
Have a look at the new generation online firms; Gilt Groupe, dropbox,
digg, twitter. They reek of simplicity,
speed, ease of use, seamless service, all collectively elements of user
experience which really means giving the best possible service to users. Everything about user experience must be
super simple; to use, to look at, fast, convenient. Anything not directly related are removed,
minimised or moved elsewhere. They are
all inertia. The ‘here it is, take it or
leave it’ approach are passé. Even if it
is a free service, these new sites give a lot of respect to the consumer.
With User
Experience, words like rapid (to get in and out), directness, intuition and
effortless sums up the process.
Ultimately, it is about providing an all-embracing feel. It is attention to details with all things
related to providing delightful online experience. The total feel drives the design. It aims at being effortless to use. If it is a search, let him focus, do not let
the site distract him. Make it as fast
as possible. A top Google executive in
search said he agonises over cutting 0.01 second off search results and has the
budget to continuously do this. It is
about details. One of my regular news
site has an internal ad on its piece of real estate promoting a sub-site on
food. It has been there for some
time. If the site knows that I do go to
the food sub-section, maybe once in three months, it could release that space
for other ads. I already know about its
food sub-site and ventures there.
Convenience for users is everything.
There is more genuine deference to the consumer. With traditional businesses, you know it is
mostly marketing when they say the customer is the king. Here they mean it and acts on it as though
the business will collapse if they don’t.
But of course this is business after all. Their business philosophy is simply that if
they get it exceedingly right for the customer, profits will come. Whatever, the consumer hasn’t had it this
good for a long time, in term of vendor attention.
While this concept
of minimising and user experience is moving into mainstream, in Asia, we haven’t felt it yet. Most sites are clogged up as though it is
still the way to go. Perhaps the two
methods to attain better user experience may help.
The first is
something I call 2-clicks. The obvious
interpretation is of taking a maximum of two clicks of the mouse to get to the
content you want. Well, it is partly
about minimising the number of clicks.
But what it really means is a site so streamlined, so easy to navigate,
so quick and convenient, a consumer will find it a joy to use because it is an
exacting experience. It is not about
trying your best, it is about Steve Job’s way of going above that to the
extreme. It is also about making the
product experience intuitive, seamless and to lessen the number of clicks. Good is not good enough! But come to think of it, if 2-clicks is
literally implemented, it is no bad thing!
The second is
user-sensitive content. This means that
the site track how a consumer use it and reacts pro-actively to it. More on this in the next post...
LinkedIn – dr tommi
chen (goggle + profile not completed)
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