On the sincerity and authenticity that comes only from allowing anyone and everyone to speak on the behalf of the company at large, Rob (the “CEO” of Etsy) saidbest:
As I see it, large corporations try to sanitize all their outgoing messages for the sake of keeping face. It is very easy to identify this kind of behavior. Whenever you read something and it sounds like a series of pre-made phrases strung together, instead of a human being speaking, this is sanitized communication. To me, this stuff sounds inhuman.
I want Etsy to stay human. This means allowing each person’s voice to be heard, even if it’s squeaky or loud or soft. I will not put a glossy layer of PR over what we do. If we trip, let us learn from it instead of trying to hide it; when we leap, let’s show others how to leap. Hence the title of this whole blog post: Open Etsy.
The first paragraph is nothing new, but the second (especially the part I bolded) is both brilliant and beautiful. It’s an amazing end to such an incredible post.
On the role of usability as the most important issue when designing online, Todd Wilkens of Adaptive Path saidbest:
Praising usability is like giving me a gold star for remembering that I have to put each leg in a different place in my pants to put them on. (Admittedly, I do give my 2 year old daughter a gold star for this but then she’s 2.) Usability is not a strategy for design success. … Usability is too low level, too focused on minutia. It can’t compel people to be interested in interacting with your product or service. It can’t make you compelling or really differentiate you from other organizations.
I wholeheartedly agree. I aspire to create interfaces experiences that are engaging, lively, and inspired. I do not always nail it, but I do believe I am getting closer, and much more consistent. At a minimum, they are personable, quirky, and unique; I can live with that in the interim.
Speaking of which, I have a really good one to share with you all in the next few days.
And, fwiw, I respect and truly admire the way Adaptive Path approaches their work. In my mind, AP and Cooper are the quintessential San Francisco design firms, and the only two places I would even consider should I ever tire of doing startups. =)
In honor of Duncan Black and his “This has been another edition of What Digby Said” series, I’d like to point to Marc Andreessen’s most recent post on startups in the very same way…
This has been another edition of What Marc Said.
And even after an almost solid year of it, I still can’t wait to get right back into the thick of it.