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Simplicity and Goovite
I occasionally get asked why this newsletter is in plain text, with no HTML or other decoration.
HTML is a nice idea for e-mail, but plain ASCII text does the job just fine - with no downsides (like compatibility differences) and plenty of upsides (like portability and quick download).
But there's a more accurate reason why I choose plaintext, and it's an idea I cling to with almost religious fervor in my work:
Always try to use the simplest tool to do the job.
Creators who pursue simplicity enjoy several benefits: less expensive development, higher quality output, happier customers, and most importantly, clearer thinking. Even Einstein spoke of this idea (as I quoted on June 27).
Simplicity may not seem relevant in these fast-paced, high-tech times. But pay attention to it: simple products are making a comeback. The technology world is about to undergo a seismic shift, one that will affect most companies, change the balance of power, and bring the Internet to a new level of importance.
Simple, easy, quickly developed Web applications are on their way - and many will generate fierce competition with the old guard: older tools built in an era of customer-unfriendly business models and few competitors.
Why is now the right time for these simple Web apps?
1. There are many more Internet users today than ever before.
2. The average Internet user is becoming more comfortable with using Web-based applications - not just software on the PC.
3. Development tools and environments for Web apps are becoming easier, faster, and more widely available to programmers everywhere.
I could list a bunch of resources to support my case, but here are a few:
http://www.flickr.com - relatively new, very popular photo-sharing site
http://del.icio.us - very new bookmark-sharing service
http://www.rubyonrails.org - popular new rapid development environment
http://www.37signals.com - several easy-to-use tools (using Ruby on Rails)
And of course, 10 Steps to a Hugely Successful Web 2.0 Company:
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2005/08/10_steps_to_a_h.html
I'm happy to enter this world myself, as of today, by officially announcing the first online productivity app from Good Experience: it's called Goovite, and it's the quickest and easiest way online to issue invites.
Try out Goovite: http://www.goovite.com
One main advantage is that you don't need to register with a username and password in order to use the tool, and of course there's no cost. Just go to Goovite, send the invite off, and start tracking RSVPs right away.
And, of course, the e-mails are all in plaintext.
(P.S. Why Goo? Goovite is brought to you by Goo' Experience, "makers of Gel." Have a goo' time :)
Hi Mark,
Interesting invite tool. I think a little too simple. Why? b/c it isn't very fun to use. The experience at eVite has become horrible b/c it is now marred with too much Yuck! But you went in the extreme opposite direction. eVite about 2-4 years ago was much better.
But that isn't the real reason why I'm writing. You say you use "plain text" for a bunch of reasons explaining that simple technologies are best. In the matter of e-mail, I can agree if the information you are presenting is presentable without the aid of more technology. And let's assume for most solutions that is the case.
But then you make a big leap about how the time is ripe for simple web tools. The examples you gave though are actually not simple at all. That is if we are comparing them to "plain text" e-mail as a technology.
flickr is an amazingly designed and coded hybrid of technologies: AJAX, Flash, and several incarnations of desktop downloads.
del.icio.us is also not all that simple when it comes to technology.
Ruby on Rails and 37signal's basecamp and backpack, are also AJAX intensive applications.
Flickr, which I love is actually a great example of how complex technologies can be married with sophisticated design to have a very simple appearing presentation. However, Flickr is NOT a success yet. Most mainstream people are unaware of it as it is still an early adopter tool. Many have also criticized it though for not being very usable (I would have to agree).
But the comparision of "plain text" to these intensively complicated AJAX tools does not make sense, when you are looking to:
"Creators who pursue simplicity enjoy several benefits: less expensive development, higher quality output, happier customers, and most importantly, clearer thinking."
There is nothing inexpensive about the above examples ... just ask Yahoo. ;)
And then you mention Web 2.0. And this REALLY confused me. I realize that there is no standard definition of Web 2.0. But there are no definitions that I have seen that mention simplicity. Combining APIs, AJAX, Web Services, etc. is a technological and complex marvel. Making these combined infrastructure applications is going to be an intense engineering achievement as we need to manage more than just our own code but the code of others.
Design can bring an outward simplicity (or more importantly a clarity) to all of this, but the technologies are getting more complex not less.
Suggested functionality for Goovite:
1. need a way to edit an invite after it is sent. A common thing to do is send an eVite as a date holder and then add details over time.
2. The ability to say how many are in your party when responding
3. why click to a map? The whole point of Web 2.0 is to do combinations of data within a single view.
Anyway, a call for simplicity is nice, but I think your call is pointing in the wrong direction. It looks for simple technology, when I think what is necessary is simple interaction and clear presentations.
I also am not too sure about your prediction. Avalon, PDF2/Flash, etc. are going to be taking off in 2007 or so, if not earlier. And today you already have konfabulator and dashboard. Lots to explore outside of the "simple" web browser and even within it, AJAX is slowing gaining a maturity of its own.
GOOvite? Goo' luck when Google comes knocking on your door.
As for Keep It Simple, yes, always a good idea. But, it's the simple on the outside, complex on the inside model that I think you're pointing to. Make it simple for the user to do complex things (like share photos online).
Yeah, Goovite's not so cool. Sounds like you're trying to sound like a Google app. Yes, we get it - Goo'(d) Experience... but that doesn't matter. Rethink the name.
Love your newsletter, btw. Love it! :-)
Unless I missed something, I'll miss the ability to:
1) See who else is coming to the event.
2) Read their witty little responses.
It'll be nice if the user does choose to populate their goovites with HTML, that the email will automatically strip_tags prior to sending.
I also second the idea to re-edit an invite (in case of changed plans) and a direct interaction with Google maps through their API.
1) If you're indeed serious about this app (?), the name 'goovite' leaves a lot to be desired.
2) Did you intentionally leave out a privacy statement?
3) Isn't regular e-mail an easier and simpler way of sending out invitations?
Hi Mark,
I LOVE Goovite and fully agree with you about simplicity, but I also must differ with your statement that text is the simplest way to communicate.
ASCII text is a wonderful and simple way to communicate, to be sure, but there are times -- more and more common these days -- when text is simply not enough.
Remember the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Today's world is becoming more connected and more fragmanted at the same time.
The rapid advance in technology, coupled with globalization, brings with it a host of communication issues, many of which which text alone is woefully unsuited to solving.
I am not defending gratuitous art or pictures for their own sake. I strongly believe that pictures can and should enhance and clarify communication, and that they often can communicate in their own right. Pictures can convey information -- and meaning -- that words cannot.
I could cite numerous examples of times when pictures communicated meaning, where words would have fallen short:
- A man standing in front of a tank in Beijing.
- The peace symbol
- The day the Berlin wall came down
- A sign warning of a curve in the road ahead
- Guernica
- I could go on and on
I would not put pictures on a pedestal, however, or claim that they were the only answer. More often than not, a picture must be enhanced by words or numbers, and vice versa.
People have different learning styles and preferences. Whatever its strengths, why prescribe one to the detriment of others?
I understand and agree that in a complex world, simplicity is the answer to our information anxiety -- and I respectfully submit that pictures can help.
hi Mark -
great post. altho since i work for SimplyHired.com, i'd be hard-pressed to say anything critical about an editorial on simplicity ;)
i was also pleasantly surprised to discover your former post referencing Einstein -- small world, we also chose that quote as one of our guiding principles, along with a few others by Confucius, Gandhi, and Dr. Seuss (see our About Us page).
i think your perspective is right on target. i wrote about some related ideas in a post on our blog earlier this year -- i called it "usability, authenticity, and the pursuit of enjoyable information":
http://blog.simplyhired.com/archives/2005/03/usability_authe.php
...but your post captures the focus on simple stuff even better.
anyway, we definitely share several 'simple' inspirations -- certainly Flickr & 37 Signals, perhaps a few other Ajax-based services like Google Maps. we're still just getting started, but we hope our site achieves a small amount of success along those lines.
thanks for the post & hope to chat with you sometime in the future about what we're doing :)
- dave mcclure
www.SimplyHired.com