Creating Meaning Is More Powerful Than Creating Artifacts
| Kelsey Ruger | Jan 9, 2010 | 3 Responses | Technology |
Make our computers simpler to use! Make them talk to us, do things for us, get the information we want, help us work with other people, and adapt to our individual needs. Only then will computers make us productive and truly serve us, instead of the other way around. Michael Dertouzos
When I was about 12 years old I fell in love with programming. Back then I thought it was simply because I liked to program and make things “better”. Over time however, I realized that my interest in programming was really about the discovery of the unknown and the excitement of creating something new.
Technology can help us build things that are more advanced, but that doesn’t necessarily make them better. As solutions become more advanced they should still solve a need. Building things is why I started programming when I was 12, making things that are relevant is why I embraced creativity, design, ethnography and psychology.
Without an understanding of how to create solutions that people really want, technologists will continue to create unfriendly technology.
Start asking “why” instead of what
For as long as I can remember when it came to building something I was asked to create something that met a certain set of requirements that someone dreamed up. Now I know that creating is not necessarily a how or what problem (how to build stuff), more and more it’s a why problem(what should we build and why). We have to be able to create things that are about creating experiences that are relevant to people. When you don’t ask “why”, you run the risk of creating an “artifact” that is stripped of relevance for the user.
So true, Kelsey! I think the problem in our industry today is most people’s answer to the question “why” can be summarized with, “because it’s the current trend”.
People like ourselves create (more often, desire to create) because we want to enrich the lives of ourselves and others. The difficult part isn’t always creating something unique, but selling potential users and investors why they won’t want to live without your product after using it.
For example, when RIM introduced the Blackberry Storm, people were not only disappointed but angry. The user experience was shoddy. It was obvious their answer to the question “why” was “Just get us in the touchscreen market, we’ll worry about quality later.”