MissingMethod

Kathy Sierra has numerous posts about helping the user “kick ass.” It has been helpful for me to run the “kick-ass” filter on every feature I consider for my projects. Invariably, I find myself cutting out features that might be new and fun to develop but don’t actually help regular users kick ass. It’s similar to the idea that “nobody loves your kids like you do” – the more you know your product, the less objective you are about what feature it ought to include.

So, let’s say you’ve gone through your set of features and decided what will actually help the user kick ass, and you’ve cut out the features you slipped in there merely to pique your developer curiousity. Now that you have a list, how do you prioritize? Or better yet, how to you prioritize features from the user’s point of view? If you don’t have a user around, and it’s just you and your buddy working on a social-networking app for cat lovers, just ask yourself this question: “what would I bitch about next?”

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These $200 Atena shelves sure are pretty, but unless you have books, picture frames or pottery with rounded bases, they’re going to be pretty impractical.

Fortunately, my meetings consist of two people quickly debating a problem and usually agreeing on a solution in under five minutes. But for those of you who have to endure long, spiraling meetings where no one seems to be talking about the same thing, Kathy Sierra has a convenient little Cluetrain Bingo card you can bring with you:

Modern wood-pulp papermaking methods were first developed in China around the first century (105 AD), but it wasn’t until 1391 that Chinese emperors began ordering 3×5 foot squares of the stuff for use in the bathroom. Why did it take a thousand years for people to realize wiping with paper was better than the alternatives (leaves, shells, corn cobs, etc.)?

Understanding simple connections between problems and their solutions is hard. It’s easier to justify why existing methods (i.e. corn cobs) are good enough. What can do to help yourself discover simpler solutions to problems?

Ask stupid questions.
Stupid questions are the hardest to answer. They’ll get you thinking about problems from a new perspective and allow you to be skeptical about the established thinking on a topic. Example: Einstein started his work on relativity by imagining what things would look like if he traveled on a beam of light.

Try new tools.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When all you have is Ruby on Rails, everything looks like a Ruby on Rails project. Get a new hammer: Flash, OpenLaszlo, Processing, Camping are just a few examples.

Be positive.
Shooting down ideas is easy but wasteful. It’ll kill your creativity, especially if you’re working with a team. Learn to say yes more. Saying yes doesn’t mean “Yes, this is how we’ll solve the problem”, it just means you’re accepting the potential of the idea to lead to an eventual solution. Check out John Sweeny’s Innovation at the Speed of Laughter for more on this (Sweeny’s presentation video here).

Solve different problems.
The creative process often leads to a solution for a problem you weren’t even concerned with. So what? Be an equal opportunity problem-solver.

Be Persitent.
Again, Einstein says: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

When in doubt, start.
Doing is better than not doing. Don’t be afraid to just start.

You know when you’re walking to work and your banana starts getting tossed around in your pants? Then when you take a look, it’s all bruised up and nasty? Well, now there’s a solution:

OK, so it’s got an unfortunately evocative shape, and it lends itself to lewd comparisons, but the Banana Guard is a really cool, useful solution to a real problem (at least for me). I bike to work every day, and often by the time I get there, my bananas are all bruised up and unappealing (sorry for the pun).

The Banana Guard solves that by protecting the fruit in a strong rubbery casing that is even perforated for ventilation. It’s a perfect example of a simple product solving an annoying problem and bringing value to the buyer.

It’s just $9.95 for a single guard, or $35 for a 5-pack.

Probably not (unless the Signals have lapsed back into some long-abandoned client-work), but lately Comcast’s Web site and billboards are looking suspiciously like slides from a DHH or Jason Fried presentation. Inspiration or imitation? You decide.

Comcast:

37Signals:

Over-protective dialog windows

May 3rd, 2006 / Usability / 1 comment

This one made me chuckle:

The funny thing is, this box came up after I had already clicked another box asking me if I was sure I wanted to delete the files. It’s sweet that the software developers are so concerned about my files, but I think one box is enough.

Nevertheless, I guess I could be wrong, really.