The Trap of Easy
In life and in product design, we fall into the trap of doing what is easy, instead of taking on the challenge of figuring out what is right.
Even senior product designers will occasionally fall into the trap of easy. Because easy doesn’t need to be defended or explained. Easy is accepted at face value. Take notifications for example. Why wouldn’t your product have notifications?
If you use a group chat tool like Slack, HipChat, Microsoft Teams, or something similar, your inbox — and, therefore, your day — is filled with mysteries, secrets, and “Whats?”. You’re probably so numb to it that you don’t realize how much of your time and attention is being wasted.
You’re stumbling around in the dark all day long because of a simple design pattern. @jasonfried
Notifications in product design is one of these “easy” traps. Because it’s so common, we don’t put deep thought into why we add it and how it impacts our users. But who do notifications really serve anyways? Are they for the service, a hook to draw users back into their ecosystem? Are they for the user, but for what purpose? If we stop to think about what are the deep needs of our users, can we come up with patterns and products that support their deeper goals and intentions?
If you do, how will you defend your choice to not do what is easy? What if you don’t have to defend your choice? What if you choose a bias for action, and create a rapid prototype to test with users? Instead of spiraling into the eddies of discussing and arguing a concept, go build, show, and learn.
To summarize: 1. Ask yourself if you’ve fallen into a trap of easy. 2. Identify the difference between the deep and surface user needs your product is addressing. 3. Stop arguing and start prototyping to learn from your users.
What are other traps of easy you have fallen into?
Please, share your story in the comments.
