When I was 12 years old my brother and I used to listen to comedy albums. These albums were totally inappropriate for someone my age which is why so many of my buddies would quote them regularly. The popular favorite was Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious” but mine was “A Place For My Stuff” by George Carlin.
“That’s all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That’s all your house is- a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time.”
The gist of this comedy routine is that everybody has a lot of stuff that collectively becomes their home. Everyone has their own pile of stuff. Their stuff defines them, protects them, and leaves them prepared for every eventuality. When we go elsewhere we need to bring our stuff with us. We bring the items we need but also many items we want because they make us feel better. The amount of stuff we bring depends on how long we will be away from home and the capacity of our bags.
The Desktop as a House
In modern computing, the desktop and laptop are the digital version of a house full of stuff. In this house the internet is stable and power is plentiful. Large hard drives encourage us to become digital pack rats saving every document, photo, email and program that we may need someday. This provides the same comfort as our big house of stuff.
The giant monitors and keyboard/mouse interface allows for maximum efficiency and accuracy. On a desktop, we can perform complex actions and multitask. They can accommodate big interfaces with dozens of features as we sit in focused concentration.
Mobile
“Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff… You gotta take a smaller version of your house.”
When we leave our desks and go mobile, we have to leave some stuff behind. Our dual 17-inch displays serve no purpose but to weigh us down. Keyboards and mice dangle at our sides until we find a flat surface. Wires become leashes. Similar to travelling, we want to bring all of our stuff with us but struggle with the size and weight of our mobile devices.
Tablets
“That’s when your friend calls up from Maui, and says, ‘Hey, why don’tcha come over to Maui for the weekend and spend a couple of nights over here.’ Oh, no! Now what do I pack? Right, you’ve gotta pack an even smaller version of your stuff. … Just enough stuff to take to Maui for a coupla days.”
The tablets we have today are an impressive balance of portability and functionality. There are many of us carrying one around in our everyday lives. If you are out and about, on your deck or living room couch, a tablet is a casual option to perform many tasks.
But the compromise is undeniable. The screen size is significantly smaller and much narrower if you are in portrait mode. This leaves less room for banners, headers and side bars. The touchscreen interface requires large touch targets requiring buttons to be larger. Our fingers are much less precise than a mouse arrow and our hands block the screen. In sum, you have less room for navigation while your buttons need to be bigger. You are faced with the same dilemma George Carlin does when he visits “Maui for the weekend”. You can only carry what one suitcase will hold, the rest has to stay home.
Smartphones
“That’s when your friend says, ‘Aaaaay, I think tonight we’ll go over the other side of the island, visit a pal of mine and maybe stay over.’ Aww, no. NOW what do you pack? Right- you gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff…. Only the stuff you know you’re gonna need…”
Smartphones have irrevocably changed human behavior. They fit in your pocket and perform tasks which would require a dozen devices ten years ago. They are always with us: in the car, on the train, at the supermarket, on a walk, in bed, on the beach and in the bathroom (ew). Smartphones are the definition of portable.
But the compromises suffered on tablets are multiplied on a smartphone. The screen size is so much smaller that screens need to be reconfigured. The touch targets need to be as big as they are on a tablet which means they are taking up even more of the screen. There is less room for navigation, content and everything else. Now George needs to fit all of his stuff in a backpack. He has to leave behind the stuff that he wants and get by only with the stuff he needs.
Stripping away all of the extraneous content and features to only the most important items was the original thinking behind Mobile First. Create a design that works well on a device with a small screen and touch interaction. Some users complained about the missing features they wanted. Mobile First only delivered the features they needed. Users raved about the focus and simplicity of the mobile experience and these designs started to inform the desktop.
It didn’t take long for those features to creep back in when everyone started going responsive. And we can all thank the hamburger menu (☰) for making that possible. It solved the navigation problem on smartphones and allowed us to have infinite space to fit our desktop content. It would be like giving George the Mary Poppins’ magic carpet bag: a place where many items would fit in a small space. Now he can bring all of his stuff with him and leave nothing behind.
George may feel comforted that he has all of his stuff but it is a burden. When he reaches into that backpack for a pen it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. He can’t see everything that is in there so he needs to pull out the items one at a time. The sheer volume of items makes that pen difficult to find.
We will be much more successful on mobile if we focus on making it easier for users to find and do what they need. It’s much easier for us to include everything from desktop on mobile because we feel more comfortable and get to avoid many difficult decisions. Our users pay the price by enduring difficult findability. You don’t need to carry your house around with you when you go mobile… “only the stuff you know you’re gonna need.”
“Only the stuff you know you’re gonna need. Money, keys, comb, wallet, lighter, hanky, pen, smokes, rubber and change. Well, only the stuff you HOPE you’re gonna need.”
“A Place For My Stuff” Copyright © 1981 George Carlin Estate
https://youtu.be/C2EkYPlUuwE
