Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Relentless pursuit of improvement

It's important to improve the products we deliver. Increased efficiency comes through continuous improvement.

However, change is distracting. Change is accepted because the cost of disrupting production is worth the productivity gain.

There's an opportunity for technology/software products that deliver functionality such as communication/messaging, video/audio, news/blogs with a user interface that changes infrequently.

Once you've learned how to play music on your computer / mp3 player, you may not want/need the interface to change. Swiping up vs down and single vs double clicking may not add enough value for those only interested in getting music into headphones.

There will always be segments of society intrigued by and driving change. It's important to innovate. At the same time, some functionality may not improve with change, and the number of people interested in stability for simple daily tasks grows daily with an aging connected population. Updating a design or UI because it needs to be refreshed or looks outdated may not be reason enough for everyone.