One Characteristic of Great Innovations
If you're trying to create something that people will use, here's some advice that an aunt gave me a long time ago: "One of the main goals of invention is to make a hard thing easy."
That may sound obvious, but at the time, for me, it was not. I had just spent a few hours rigging up a little ramp so that if a person wanted to turn off their alarm, they had to turn a little crank and it would move a rock up this little conveyor belt and drop it onto the "Snooze" button. My aunt pointed out that this wasn't a great invention because reaching over and hitting a button isn't terribly difficult to do after waking up. Turning a crank is. I was 9 years old at the time, and the lesson was learned.
But it's not just about making a hard thing easy. Really great innovations take it one step further. They don't only make the hard thing easy for the person to do...they're also crafted so that the person forgets that they're doing the hard thing at all.
If you're a writer, strive to write so that your words don't get in the way. Make it easy for the reader to forget that they're reading a book.
If you're creating a piece of software that helps people pay their bills online, make it easy for them to forget that they're paying those bills.
If you're designing a car, make it easy for the person to forget that they're operating a large piece of machinery that puts them at risk while they're driving it. (Although, in the last case, perhaps you shouldn't make it too easy for people to forget that they're driving.)
When I pay my bills online, my bank's web site has an interface that constantly reminds me that I'm using the Internet to pay bills. It works without any problems (most of the time), but the finesse is missing. It feels like I'm using a web site. I read a book recently called Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, which was a great book, and contained great ideas, but in almost every paragraph, the author's writing style got in the way. He often over-developed his point, or drew an analogy that reminded me he was writing. He's a really good writer, but the actual writing called attention to the fact that I was reading a book. I often had to re-orient myself and start reading again.
If you can apply this to whatever it is that you're creating, if you can really get that perspective from your customers and put to work for you, then you're already more than halfway there. When you think of a way to invent an alarm clock that wakes people up, and also makes it easy for people to forget that they're being yanked out of their morning slumber to prepare for their workday, you'll have a winner on your hands.
That may sound obvious, but at the time, for me, it was not. I had just spent a few hours rigging up a little ramp so that if a person wanted to turn off their alarm, they had to turn a little crank and it would move a rock up this little conveyor belt and drop it onto the "Snooze" button. My aunt pointed out that this wasn't a great invention because reaching over and hitting a button isn't terribly difficult to do after waking up. Turning a crank is. I was 9 years old at the time, and the lesson was learned.
But it's not just about making a hard thing easy. Really great innovations take it one step further. They don't only make the hard thing easy for the person to do...they're also crafted so that the person forgets that they're doing the hard thing at all.
If you're a writer, strive to write so that your words don't get in the way. Make it easy for the reader to forget that they're reading a book.
If you're creating a piece of software that helps people pay their bills online, make it easy for them to forget that they're paying those bills.
If you're designing a car, make it easy for the person to forget that they're operating a large piece of machinery that puts them at risk while they're driving it. (Although, in the last case, perhaps you shouldn't make it too easy for people to forget that they're driving.)
When I pay my bills online, my bank's web site has an interface that constantly reminds me that I'm using the Internet to pay bills. It works without any problems (most of the time), but the finesse is missing. It feels like I'm using a web site. I read a book recently called Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, which was a great book, and contained great ideas, but in almost every paragraph, the author's writing style got in the way. He often over-developed his point, or drew an analogy that reminded me he was writing. He's a really good writer, but the actual writing called attention to the fact that I was reading a book. I often had to re-orient myself and start reading again.
If you can apply this to whatever it is that you're creating, if you can really get that perspective from your customers and put to work for you, then you're already more than halfway there. When you think of a way to invent an alarm clock that wakes people up, and also makes it easy for people to forget that they're being yanked out of their morning slumber to prepare for their workday, you'll have a winner on your hands.