Reading for 10/29

This chapter in "Design to Thrive" is all about the 'S' in "RIBS": significance.  Howard discusses here how the importance of significance plays into the success of a new site.  The consumer wants to feels as though they are involved in something worth their while because it is prominent or important in their community.  The power of significance can be the difference between success and failure in a site.  Facebook, for instance, is a site that demonstrates significance.  Why do people get a Facebook? Because their friends have them.  It's all about being involved in something other people care about, too, so you're no just wasting your time on something no one else is interested in.  Facebook became a phenomenon because it started out so exclusive, only students of certain schools could be a member.  Then it expanded from certain schools to all schools, then to all people.  This initial exclusivity launched it into stardom and then once to clientele was secured, it allowed everyone in.  The minds behind Facebook knew how to attract consumers, and then how to keep them: by keeping it relevant and thus significant.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are websites like MySpace.  While MySpace certainly wasn't, and still isn't, a failure, it's not quite the gold mine that Facbook is, when it was once poised to be.  That's because it failed to adapt and grow with its consumer, and they found something that suited their purposes better.  As Facebook went on the rise, so MySpace began to fall.  In this instance, one sites success became another's failure because it took its significance away from it.  MySpace isn't significant in the wake of the tour de force that is Facebook.  This particular aspect of RIBS became the difference for both of these sites, even if in two very different ways.

Reading for 10/8

In these chapters of "Made to Stick" the Heath brothers explore the first two aspects of what makes an idea, or more specifically a plan, a "SUCCESs."  The first of these is to keep it "Simple."  The first few pages of the chapter work to clarify that by simple the brothers do not mean you dumb-down your plan or cut out complicated aspects, but rather to find the core of the plan, the main idea behind the plan, and put this forward as the most important aspect to be focused on.  I don't know about the majority of people, but I know for me that I need to understand the big picture before I can understand the smaller parts of a concept so this idea makes perfect sense to me. I need to be able to see the main point and the final objective before working on the details of a plan, and the Heath brothers explicate on that very thoroughly here.

The second component of a SUCCESsful idea is that it is "Unexpected."  One of the Heath brothers' examples they use to illustrate this idea of unexpectedness is through the use of mysteries in scientific writing. They talk about how a scientist writing for a non-scientific audience can employ the use of mysteries to captivate the reader's attention, but more importantly, to keep their attention. What's unexpected about the use of a mystery is that the reader is taken on an unexpected journey.  When reading a scientific document you expect it to be dense and filled with jargon and unfamiliar terms, and often it is, but if a mystery is introduced you find yourself unexpectedly invested in something you didn't plan to care about. This idea of being surprised and introduced to something we weren't even looking for in this first place is something that makes perfect sense as another reason why some ideas thrive, ironically, unexpectedly.