Simple product experiences

Michael Galpert, writing about Jelly, but commenting broadly on product experiences:

The simplicity of the UX ends up making people question the utility or even the need for yet another app in our life. The UI on these systems often times are too basic and people are initially shocked by the experience.

Simplicity in experience is often misunderstood as simplistic in value. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Great products come from people who have the empathy required to reduce an experience to its core while still providing value. This is especially true on mobile.

Evan Williams shared his philosophy for building great product and it came down to ‘removing extra steps from common activities:’

[The internet] is simply an engine of convenience. Those who can tune that engine well — who solve basic human problems with greater speed and simplicity than those who came before — will profit immensely. Those who lose sight of basic human needs — who want to give people the next great idea — will have problems.

The best products provide as simple of an experience as possible while still supporting a core human behavior. To paraphrase Einstein: make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.