How to Disappear
Support, Delight, and Get Out of the Way
When Jeff Bezos and his team set out to develop the Kindle, they prioritized one design element above all else. Like a physical book, the Kindle e-reader had to have the ability to “disappear completely” so that its reader could become fully immersed in the author's world. After all, what is reading but an activity in which one “stares at marked slices of a tree for hours on end, hallucinating wildly”?
This singular goal resulted in a startling array of design decisions that eschewed bells, whistles and gadgetry in favor of familiarity and nuance. The Kindle is a product with the same heft and dimensionality of a physical book, the same easy-on-the eyes gray-scale display, and the same “aura of bookishness” (Newsweek). What it adds, however, is the ability to adjust font size and brightness, look up words instantaneously, and download more books than one could likely read in a lifetime, from anywhere.
We found the exercise of attempting to “disappear” (while also improving on convention) to be incredibly inspiring and helpful. The challenge begs several questions: What is at the core of what you are building? What role does your product or service play in the lives of your customer? Is it a vehicle, or is it a destination? We'd like to share our findings with you here.
It was clear to us that Larabee is a vehicle, not a destination, and that our primary function is to support the learner's ability to build, make, and create with their hands. Far too often, we've seen people hold paper instructions or mobile devices in their hands, trying to decipher written information or pause a video at just the right time. Those are physical barriers to action: objects that demand the attention and mental energy that should be going to the principle activity of making and doing.
Our vision of success was a product that blended into the background. One that was never held in a person's hands but lived comfortably in the periphery. It's a design ethos that we refer to as: Support, delight, and get out of the way. (This has actually become my philosophy for many things in life, including parenting and Girl Scout troop leading.)
Support: Supporting the end-user means validating and solving their frustrations and needs. Let's remove unnecessary obstacles (more on that another day) and serve up a toolkit for success: looping video steps to see something as many times as needed, speech-based navigation for when hands are covered or otherwise engaged, and contextualized information to answer their most pressing and timely questions.
Delight: Human beings have an innate desire for connection and inherent reward. Ample, but optional, opportunities for connection, feedback, and storytelling speak to basic human needs. But also, what is more enlivening and delightful than the feeling of being in a state of total immersion (aka “flow”)? Or of seeing the fruits of one's labor?
Get out of the way: Using electronic ink technology, Amazon was able to create a comfortable text display that bore a remarkable resemblance to the physical pages of a book. They forwent the temptation to add in shiny bells and whistles in favor of providing a sense of familiarity and ease to encourage immersiveness. This can often take considerable effort, restraint, inventiveness, and thoughtfulness.
One last thing to keep in mind is context. My Kindle has not replaced the prevalence of physical books in my life; it is simply my go-to for nighttime fiction reading. In the mornings, I read non-fiction, always in paperback or hardback so I can write in the margins. Similarly, Larabee is not designed for all learning. We are best suited for motor skills and visual information that occurs sequentially.
Whether your product or service is a vehicle or destination, engaging in this sort of in-depth exploration can be incredibly fun and helpful. They help define what your north star is, and from there what your priorities need to be.
