An Inexorable March Towards Simplicity
Technology makers continue to work hard to make their products easy to use
Humankind's innovative prowess, particularly in the technology space, has seen a peak in the current decade that is perhaps unprecedented in history. Whether corporate technology buyer or inveterate gadget freak, we have happily been inundated by a cornucopia of ever newer and more sophisticated products, delivered by the rich pipelines of technological innovation.
Much of this innovation is powered by the advances in electronic circuitry engendered by Moore's Law, which allows ever more functionality to be stuffed into ever more compact packages. This phenomenon is evident in just about every technology product, from cell phones to cameras to computers.
However, the above recipe does not automatically translate into ease of use. In fact, it may be argued that rising complexity and sophistication militate against simplicity. Wrapping ever-growing complexity in an envelope that is simple and easy to use is indeed a task of daunting proportions. The world has changed dramatically since the early 20th century playwright Bertholdt Brecht wrote, "..it is simplicity that is difficult to make", but those words echo as true as ever.
Yet, it is plain that simplicity and ease of use are values that every maker of technology products must diligently strive for. And there is good reason to believe that in a flattening world, the move towards simplicity is gathering steam.
As we have seen earlier, products that are truly born in the flat world are designed to fit in organically with the user's need. These products tend to be created via unplugged approaches to innovation such as co-creation, and are thus more intuitive and easy to use. The flattening world also brings in a large number of new users who are likely to be less sophisticated, and to demand simplicity and ease of use.
The speed of information flow in the flattening world too has a role to play here. Early users of a product quickly share experiences using blogs and other social technologies, and a few bad reports on any aspect (including usability) can sound the death knell for a new product. The channels thru which consumers hear about new products are faster, and those consumers are less willing to devote time to learning how to use a product.
Prompted by these realities, I had written elsewhere in January 2007 that the defining technology trend of 2007 would be simplicity. Let's look at a few developments in the technology world since then, and whether technology did indeed get simpler.
Google, already considered nonpareil by many in the field of simplicity, made further inroads in that direction. A February 2007 interview had Google's new director of user experience talking of the need for the company to get more user-centered, and to begin thinking of themselves as designing not products but user experiences. Google also announced its Android platform in late 2007, with the avowed goal of allowing the creation of easier-to-use interfaces for mobile devices. A November 2007 release from the Open Handset Alliance states that its objective is "giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today's mobile platforms".
Products embodying simplicity and ease of use found those virtues translating into market success. The iPhone continued to win hearts and market share, growing to cross a quarter of the North American smartphone market. Wrote Business Week in October 07: "In the wake of the iPhone launch, many (smartphone makers) are taking pains to ... eliminate the often arduous or non-intuitive task of gaining access to even the most basic information". The Firefox browser, widely lauded for its simplicity, gained 5% market share during the year to reach 28% market share in Europe*. The market share crossed 40% in some countries.
A large milestone in the journey towards simplifying the experience of working with computers was the introduction of Surface Computing by Microsoft in May 2007. This novel initiative seeks to make interacting with technology effortless and intuitive. While this is a laudable initiative in an area where improvement is badly needed, we will know how successful it is only when actual products reach the market**.
Clear skies ahead for Cloud computing
The term cloud computing gained traction in 2007, to refer to large-scale distributed computing that frees up the end-user from having to worry about maintenance, storage, scaling, OS and application upgrades et al....in other words, cloud computing promises great strides in achieving simplicity for the user. IBM and Google launched high-strength cloud computing initiatives, joining Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) web service.
And the singular trend towards simplicity has continued well into 2008.
Extending its Google Apps suite, Google launched its wiki, Google sites in Februrary 2008, with the goal of making "creating a team site as easy as editing a document". Cisco's director of user experience, who had earlier talked of "reinventing the telephone user experience", said he is driven by a simple mission: "Making things simple". Microsoft hired a veteran design expert from Adobe to lead its team working on improving the Windows user experience.
And speaking at CES 2008 on January 6th 2008, Bill Gates predicted that over the next five years, more intuitive and natural technologies for interacting with computers would emerge.
Simple, natural and intuitive. Quite simply, that's the way technology products are headed.
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* there is considerable murkiness around the issue of browser market share, thus proving that the browser wars of the early 21st century are not quite fought out yet - only some of the players have changed!
Comments
This is apparent everywhere be it technology or business models that drives the industry today. The tradeoff often lies between increasing functionality and driving up user-acceptance and companies that are successful in business today are ones who meet the right balance between innovation and simplicity. A look back how Dell changed the game in which its business operated in the 90s – its was radical yet simplistic. A decade later it was the same business model that gave the Dell top management a reason to think and further innovate. Change was the only thing that is constant here – the Apple’s and the Google’s of the world need to innovate further constantly with a constant eye on user acceptance and shape their products likewise. Technology is headed toward total convergence – take the case of healthcare where say a CT machine was sold initially on grounds of the sections of image it could display – so you got the 32 slice, 48 slice, 64 slice and so on. While this would reach a limit with the ultimate game changer would be one that would bring in a fine balance of technology upgrade combined with increased simplicity and usability, added to in convergence with other technologies like networking and the total works.
Looking at the other side the need for simplicity is particularly difficult to see when you are working at a company to improve an existing product. The obvious solution is to add more features to existing products, something everyone in a product-development organization can understand, but this does not necessarily improve the product for the consumer. There have been numerous instances when we have come across software engineers/developers explain that their software UI is simple because "the user only needs to click here then pull down this menu item and press alt-A to activate the needed feature." …..
This is definitely not simplicity at its best. While its often the management is averse to change and the slightest sound of change from the lower ranks can be a near death bell (read bad PR for the manager) or a pink-slip in the long run. But these are all learning’s that often go a long way in successful career or even product delivery and implementations. There is ROI on failure too just like there is a cost of quality.
The key to innovation is to touch the customers pulse – and the customer has the final say in the success or failure of a particular product/service. Often the fundamental mistake that people make in business is to flood the customer with options about a particular product/service without keeping an eye on the functionality and probable user acceptance. And it is often simplicity that in the longer haul helps service a customer better. We definitely do remember the early 90s when calling up a customer service of any hardware vendor used to be nightmare for the user. While many a company existed after that because of a lack of choice – the companies that ultimately did well were the ones who upped their ante, changed or modified their business models – all with a keen eye on the consumers pulse. Ultimately we all know it’s the people who make a business successful – whether it’s Gooogle or Apple. We wait for the next name yet!!!!
Posted by: Suprateep | June 5, 2008 05:04 PM
I think one needs to draw distinction between user interface of technology and the underpinnings of the technology that embody a technology.
There are some things that simply cannot be simplified. While there are others that can. So a complex 32-way server architecture can never be simplified. That is the nature of the beast. On the other hand the navigation of the web using ones mobile computer can be simplified.
So as usual the devil is in the detail.
Posted by: Shawn Mills | June 20, 2008 02:00 AM