What made a company started in 2005 be acquired for 1.6 Billion USD in 2006 by Google? Of course I am talking about YouTube, simple, It let you share your party videos with your friends conveniently (of course, there was more to the deal, but we are talking ‘usability’ here).
The point of emphasis is “Convenience“, of course previously also I could first compose the mail, attach the videos, my friend could then receive the mail, download them (consume bandwidth), install appropriate codecs, and watch them. It enabled you to do the same in a couple of click less.
Why is that the youth are using Facebook Wall or Orkut Scraps to drop in a Hi! rather than the conventional mail at the cost of letting everybody see the conversation, simply because it lets them do it in a couple of click less.
Observe as to how Facebook has a signup form right on its landing page, so that there is “One Click Less” for you to join and start using facebook.
The motto is that users have a tendency of “Death before Inconvenience”, that is either they are you not going to use the service or will use a competitor’s service if your Interface doesn’t let them do it in an extremely convenient way.
When someone decides to use an Apple phone, he doesn’t have 20 models to choose and decide what screen size he wants, what is the processor,is there a radio/WiFi/Bluetooth etc features, the resulting simplicity is one of the major reasons (along with the UI etc) behind its Multi-Million sales figures.
The observation may seem trivial but its realization and incorporation in your product or service can be crucial point towards building your user-base.
Your users don’t have any other motivation except convenience to use your product, they unlike your friends and family don’t think your product by default is the next best thing after sliced bread.
So if you are Technology Startup in particular observe, analyze and work upon the number of steps it takes to accomplish what you want your user to do. Figure if it can be further simplified and even a single step/click can be reduced.
If it is not absolutely necessary for users to register on your website to do something, then don’t make them do it, keep it optional (Youtube doesn’t need registration to view videos, Wikipedia doesn’t require signup to edit) and so on.
For all you know that “One Click” can make or break your product.
pic
What’s your opinion?
Hey
Nice, nice article. It’s one of those things that you never really notice you do. Thats why I switched from Orkut to Faceboook I guess.
I agree. Though it’s a concept you have explained to me before. I assume habituation (the reason why people prefer office/microsoft) fits the same concept since its inconvenient to shift brand loyalties. I don’t see the point of the xkcd cartoon though. Also, your idea fits with the growing number of “widgets” for every application. And the toolbar concept as well. haan ok, so “death before inconvenience” is applicable to a wide range of tech shit. am bored at ps. bye.
Its a fabulous post ….not because you have said something new….but because you have captured just the right ‘CONSUMER INSIGHT’ which is worth a goldmine like any consumer find.
so Vineet, now u understand why i dont use ur pen drive thing!
Great point! All but esp. Indian web site managers need a strong dose of UI education. There is very little appreciation for this in India. Having said that, Burrp! has done a real good job on this front.