One of my all time favorite books. I definitely need to read it again the upcoming months. There is no other book that changed the way I perceive the world more than this one. For those who read the book and take the advice by heart know how much it will change the you.
A lot has been written about user interfaces in software and online services. About face 1, 2 & 3 are probably the best books in the field. These books give you some insight in the psychological effect good and bad interfaces have on users. But most info is about common mistakes, best practices and technical aspects of the interface. So lets forget all this.
Lets go back to the basics of the interface. Its soul purpose is to communicate. What would an interface of an online service look like and how would it behave if you model it around the best practices found in How to win friend and influence people.
Users of a service don’t care how it all works. All the code, the logic, data, css and html, they don’t care. What they do care about is what it does for them. People love to involve themselves emotionally in a product. This involvement and the way it changes their lives is way more influential than the product price. If you really want something you’ll pay for it no matter what. People even take proud in the fact that they don’t know a thing about how a service works as long as it does what it’s supposed to do for them.
With commodities people go even further when a service is very important to them. They are willing to take two extra steps to make sure the service will be available to them again in the case something goes wrong as soon as possible. You probably also have an insurance for road service. Two extras to make sure you don’t have to understand anything about your car, but it will be available to you any time any where. Just to be sure.
Do you like your butt huggers in your car?
The Web 2.0 expo is great. There are lots of interesting people and it is always great so see some familiar faces. The thing that is missing though is a good social network that will help me find interesting people to talk to. At the moment i’m at a talk about the openSocial. A Google platform to tie almost any social network together. This sound like a nice idea and we’ll definitely use it to mash up some of our services.
What strikes me, is the fact, that such a great conference organizer as O’Reilly, still has the same old fashioned ideas about a conference. They try to create value by putting loads of speakers on stage. Most of the people in the room are developers, so they are used to participate and create. One thing you can’t do here at all is participate. Not even time for one question.
All these social networks are about connecting people together and share your data. So why not help the conference participants to connect, by setting up a network, so they can create something together. Or at least meet.
Did you ever successfully motivate a person, to pick up a task, that might have a benefit 3 months from now? Most people don’t even think about the next month, except for some holiday or a birthday.
Wikipedia has a nice theoretical write up about motivation.
Do you do some thing that might benefit you after putting years of energy in it, without being obligated to do so? That feels great right? You’re doing stuff only for enjoyment, praise and money, but you don’t have to do it.
One of the biggest steps i’ve made to put obligation aside is not doing any client work any more.
Try not to do client work for a month. Only do stuff you enjoy and praises you and you might find your passion.