Consumer experience shapes expectations in the business space
On a recent episode of .NET Rocks, Scott Stanfield of Vertigo dropped the following gem:
consumers will be driving the expectations in the business software arena. We write business software, but the people hiring Vertigo to build applications are being informed by what sofware should be based on their consumer experiences. They're using a TIVO at home, they're using an iPhone, they're booting up their MacBook Air in 25 seconds flat ... And it shuts down in 5 seconds. That's the best demo ... MacBook Air, click, one... two... threefourfive, and it's shut off. .NET Rocks - #348: [54m:12s] Scott Stanfield on Deep Zoom and PhotoSynth!
This quote beautifully captures a critical concept: the people using software and web sites that we build are bringing to those interactions experience from their personal life as well as their professional life, and all these experiences come together to form the context in which our work (as software or web site constructors) is experienced.
Let me say that again.
The context in which our work is consumed is wider than the individual works themselves.
As a result, work that fails to take this into consideration in the design and execution stages immediately becomes less relevant.
In my job, for example, the user experience delivered by YouTube, FaceBook, flickr, del.icio.us, Netvibes, etc, has become part of the table stakes for designing and executing effective web spaces.
Deliver less, and you are losing credibility with your audience before you even get to the value that you are trying to provide.