By looking at software as something that should be cute and easy to use, you are miles ahead of your competition.
Why should software look cute? Is this just a gimmick? I consider this point a very important one that can improve your chances of success a lot. Being cute is not only important for games or kids’ software. It is especially important for corporate software. If you have a business that has a website or (web) app as its backbone, you can’t afford to miss the power of this simple question: “Is it cute?”
It might feel weird that a ‘technical’ subject such as designing software needs such a simple question. If you accept this question with an open mind, you are already ahead of most of your competitors. As young as software is, it still has the aura of something serious and something extensive. Because most companies, and even designers, operate through this lens, they fail to bring in the human aspects that define successful software. By looking at software as something that should be cute and easy to use, you are miles ahead of your competition. You will stop thinking in terms of features or complex interfaces, and you will look more at human behavior and how to enthuse them with your lovable product.
So why is cuteness so important? If we go back to how we are wired as people, we can see that we are drawn to things that are cute (like baby animals) and we are scared of things that look too complex (like an aircraft cockpit).
The same is true for software. People judge your website or web (app) on the first interaction they have with it. The very moment they see your software, they start to form a judgment in the back of their minds. This is not a conscious, but a highly subconscious process.
When they are confronted with an interface that looks very dense and complex, they feel like they have to do a lot of things to be able to interact with it. These are the subconscious thoughts they might have when viewing your software:
In observations, where I silently watch the user performing tasks on a certain software (sounds creepy, but these are real user tests), I have seen real stress on the faces of users. This stress resembles the same stress that we experience in real-life danger situations. Instead of a fight-or-flight reaction, software users have a ‘close the tab’ reaction. They will close your website or web app and never come back. If these thoughts the end users might have don’t motivate you into thinking of ‘cute’ software, know that your competitors surely will. I will discuss how failing to grasp this important reality made Windows Mobile completely obsolete in a matter of years. Maybe even in less than a year.
Some of you might remember the old Windows Mobile phone. It was a handheld PDA with a mini version of the Windows Desktop software. I admit, back then, you were very cool if you owned such a device. Windows Mobile almost looked the same as its desktop counterpart: it was dense, and you had to navigate it with a little pen (stylus).
For years there was no competitor, and they had a monopoly. So what do companies do when they have no competitors? They get comfortable and continue to work like they have ‘always worked’.
Suddenly, the iPhone came along (back in the old days when a charger was included). What they did was not an improvement over Windows Mobile. They did not take Windows Mobile and add more features. Had they done that, they would’ve made a more complex version of Windows Mobile and would never have seen the success the iPhone has known. Instead of adding more, they simply created a whole new product that was ‘cute’. The ‘home screen’ could be compared to a blank canvas. On that canvas, you had cute icons called apps.
The invention was so simple and powerful that it completely wiped out Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile rebranded itself later on to Windows Phone, which took most of its cues from the iPhone, but always failed to bounce back from its loss to Apple.
In the first years of the iPhone, people weren’t sure that it would replace Windows Mobile in the corporate world. They considered the iPhone ‘fun’ and innovative but not as corporate as Windows Mobile. However, the iPhone proved its simplicity in the corporate world too and dominated over the complex Windows Mobile.
I hope this example gives you a clear idea of why we should consistently ask the question: “Is it cute?”
In the following chapters, I will give you more practical tips that ensure your software is cute. Every chapter will give you a background of why it works, a few examples, and some practical tasks that you can implement in your software right away. This is a practical book that you can always reread and keep with you.
For now, you can take a look at your current website or (web) app and ask yourself the questions stated below. If you don’t have a current website or (web) app and you are planning to build it, come back to this chapter and answer these questions once you have a design. If you have internalized these lessons before you start designing and building your software, you will save months of time and tons of money.
The questions are:
In the coming chapters, we will discuss most of these questions and what you can do about them. For now, if you have grasped the idea of cuteness and simplicity, you have gained a big new insight into what makes software successful.
The coming chapters are very practical, and we will conclude the book with more theory to improve your thinking when creating great products.
The practical tips are tips you can apply today in your software. So let’s start with moving some expert features out of the way.
Any questions or comments on this blog post?