Short thoughts to help focus work on what matters.

1. Clarity

What good or service are you providing, specifically? How narrowly can we define it? Focus your scope like you would a magnifying glass to create the smallest dot possible to start a fire.

Then we are properly positioned to understand what tools would be most helpful to build to serve that end; to help alleviate the most severe bottlenecks.

We must define THE MAIN THING, because we have limited time, energy, and focus, and we want to have a good ROI on those constraints. The time required in uncovering THE MAIN THING however is often underestimated, and undervalued.

Encourage questions at all levels of development. People are afraid, sensitive, egotistical, shy, overly confident, and impatient. But we must understand people’s desires. We must seek to know the existing processes from beginning to end in order to build the proper tools to alleviate the most pain and friction from the work they are to do.

2. Beauty

First impressions matter. Style and beauty serve the user in ways difficult to quantify. Seek to build tools that value beauty in spite of the challenge of quantifying it’s value.

Technology has a track record. It’s ugly, complicated, and often misanthropic.

What is stopping me from investing time and energy in building tools and interfaces that consider the

I desire whatever tools or sites I build to be some small way, thoughtful, elegant, and consistently enjoyable to use for the people using or visiting them every day.

3. Speed

Software that respects everyone’s time and makes their work and play more enjoyable must be fast. Speed is a pillar of good UX.