Start-ups | That INDIE Dude

Posts Tagged ‘start-ups’

Oct 9

MORE is NOT always better.

Posted at 9:00 AM on October 9th, 2009 by Alex

We live in a world of technical advancement - and it ROCKS.

I’m about as proud as a person can get to live in this generation. I’m pumped that my cellphone is more powerful than my computer was 10 years ago, and ecstatic that I’m connected to billions of other people over the internet wherever I go.

BUT - I’ve noticed a trend lately. Among the hundreds of thousands of new internet startups this year who just keep giving us more features and technical possibilities, most are forgetting something very important: simplicity. Developers and designers are dreaming up wonderfully technical fixes to complex problems, but as a wise mentor put it to me, they are forgetting to “Gump it up.”

For some, it isn’t affecting their acceptance very much yet because right now they are only aimed at a very technically savvy (and ambitious) crowd. A lot of us won’t rest until we’ve been through every settings menu to look for a way to do what we want to do. But just because we’re that energetic about our searches for features doesn’t mean we should have to be. No matter who the company - new, old, big, or small - everyone out there with any sort of user-interfacing needs to be on a constant search to make things easier, more efficient, and - well - gumpier.

This is the beginning of a series of posts exploring some high-profile internet startups with some huge promise, but a serious need to put themselves in a new user’s shoes. Have any suggestions for future posts? Leave a comment below!

Start-Up #1: Foursquare

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