What Don’t Worry Be Crappy Really Means
March 10th, 2006
Updated For SXSW Interactive: Heading to SXSW I thought this particular post should be updated with information we discussed while preparing for our Design and Social Responsibility panel for SXSW.
One of the worst problems with making new technology accessible and usable is that those considerations are added too late. - Whitney Quesenbery
I think all software and web sites should have a goal of meeting the most basic human needs before attempting to meet higher needs. Too often building web sites and web applications becomes a mad rush to create something “flashyâ€? or “coolâ€?, when what is really cool is an app that does what it supposed to do. I just finished reading 37 Signal’s Getting Real, In it there is a paragraph that reads.
Beware of the “everything but the kitchen sink� approach to web app development. Throw in every decent idea that comes along and you’ll just wind up with a half-assed version of your product. What you really want to do is build half a product that kicks ass. Stick to what’s truly essential. Good ideas can be tabled. Take whatever you think your product should be and cut it in half. Pare features down until you’re left with only the most essential ones. Then do it again.
There is a great deal of power in being basic (read crappy). It’s at the core of every great design. Some people don’t understand that “great technology” isn’t technology packed full of features or with the most eye catching interface. Great technology solves a wide range of human needs/problems – it shouldn’t create a whole new category of problems.
Original Post: January 14, 2006
Over the past few years I have heard many people repeatedly use the phrase “Don’t Worry Be Crappy” when they want to get software products released in a hurry. These people have completely missed a major point of Guy’s book Rules for Revolutionaries and his rules for innovation. This is almost as bad as quoting bible verses out of context. Guy is specifically talking about innovation. If your product is innovative, it’s OK to go to market if it lacks some features. That doesn’t mean release buggy software! Bugs are crappy, but Guy is not saying bugs are acceptable. Don’t confuse well developed, light on features software with software that has been rushed and is full of bugs. The best current example I can think of…Basecamp. Painfully simple UI, light on features and solidly built.
On another note, if your product is a copy cat or lacks innovation you had better make sure it is as bug free as possible.
Technorati Tags: Guy Kawasaki, software development, web software, accessibility, usability, sxsw, 37signals
Kevin
February 2nd, 2006
Good point. Making simple, easy to use software is good. Releasing it quickly with a small feature set is good. Releasing broken, buggy software is not good, no matter the number of features. There is really no excuse for releasing code that doesn’t work correctly.
I’d be rather upset if people were misquoting me to justify buggy software. Poor Guy.
Justin Perkins
March 10th, 2006
I agree 100%. But I’ve been drinking the 37sig koolaid for a while now :)
As a developer, there is this feeling that is hard to resist…. “I could add this feature, it’d be cool and easy. Oh there’s that one too, I saw them do that on X website, it was nice. We’ll add that too.”
I think it’s motivated a lot by what a developer thinks (er, knows) they can do. They want every web application they write to be representative of their (ever changing) skillset.
It’s simply not feasable though, for a number of reasons:
Gary
May 3rd, 2007
I’m not sure he’s being misquoted. I have his quote as saying:
“The way it works is, you ship first, then you test,” he said. “Any one of you who is in medical or biotech, don’t write this down.”
where “then you test” implies little or no testing was done before shipping, which implies buggy software was shipped. I do agree on going light on features. It all depends on what you’re doing I think. I’ve heard you pick two of the following: Features, time to market, quality. Maybe Guy is saying pick one….time to market.
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