My Brain hurts - Wunderman books

something quite simple – its ability to make simple
spelling corrections like ‘ist’ to ‘its’ and ‘hte’ to ‘the’ as you
typed.
And the world went to their IT helpdesk and asked for
the upgrade.
4. You can never be too simple
For years internet search engines prided themselves on
their simplicity.
Whilst other portals added complex offers and
confusing navigation, the search engines stuck to one
page.
But all were trounced by Google with its one fill-in box,
and otherwise blank screen.
So
So if you want your technology to fly, think simple:
• Mobile phones are increasingly easy to make voice
calls on, now their software has been simplified. But
their airtime packages are still complex. Service
providers think they are providing ‘choice’ and
‘freedom’ by offering 25 different price plans. They
might attract more customers if they just offered just
one good one.
• Most online banking sites are simple – security fears
make banks keep the functions to a minimum. Not so
online share dealing sites. Some don’t display vital
information if your monitor isn’t large enough; others
are drenched with obscure finance-speak. If online
dealing is going to break into the mainstream, these
sites need a fundamental rethink.
The MP3 player market was flooded
with multifunction devices that played
FM radio and told the time as well as
played music. Then Apple came in
and took 80% of the market with a
device that did only one thing.
• Most national railway automatic ticketing machines
have simple dialogues – but leave consumers
thinking they could have got a better deal elsewhere
if only they’d known the system better. To satisfy
customers, you have to be transparently simple.
• Moore’s Law means that software can get twice as
complex every eighteen months. Message to
software designers: making it so is a bad idea.
18 WUNDERMAN
MY BRAIN HURTS 19