In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.

teehan+lax:

Sometimes even good ideas need to be killed.

We did this many, many times over the course of this project. Sometimes we were just killing an idea, other times we were throwing out something we’d built.

It takes a great deal of perspective and courage to kill something for the betterment of a product. Even before we came on, this product took on different forms multiple times. It can be frustrating at times, but in the end, if you don’t make difficult cuts the product becomes complex and lacks direction.

Using the product

If you’re spending the bulk of your time looking at sketches or discussing static pages you’re making way too many assumptions. A great product or service works well, it doesn’t just look good. Many UX issues are invisible. They need to be used to be discovered. For this project, mandating usage through posting articles and issuing bugs helped ensure we were using the product.

The whole thing is an amazing read. I love hearing all of the behind-the-scenes genius that goes on behind making a beautiful product. There's just something about watching craftsmen sweat the details that makes you appreciate things more.

There’s no point to new technologies unless they make life better for the people they’re trying to help.

Ryan Block:

The products that break the game open aren't playing the specs game or the iteration game -- that comes later, if they're lucky. It's about vision. It's right place, right time. It's execution. And it's super rare.

These product don't always look revolutionary on day one. In fact, they can even be pretty hard to spot at first blush. But they're always easy to identify in hindsight -- once they've fundamentally changed how we do something, once they've caused us to question how we ever went without them.

But the buzz inevitably wears off, and the long haul sets in. We remember the magic of our first WiFi router or microSD card -- but now that stuff has become totally pedestrian. The game-changers make way for mature new product categories, which in turn produce mature new products.

When I read this, the first thing that came to mind was Siri. From my experience, it has a luke-warm reputation right now among my friends...but I think down the road we'll see it become a much bigger part of our lives.

FJP writes:

The Newton was a double-edged sword for Apple. On one hand, it had a big "wow" factor and reminded the world of Apple's innovative DNA. On the other hand, it was expensive and Apple had to spend considerable time and energy explaining why a "portable digital assistant" was necessary. It failed.

Now Apple waits for markets to mature a bit before they enter. They've de-emphasized "first" in favor of "best". Facetime is just video chat. Retina Displays are just higher resolution. Siri is just voice recognition. But in all three cases, they grabbed a tremendous amount of mindshare in a short time.

Amen.

Fanboys and haters like to get caught up in the 'ol "We did it first! You guys copied us!" argument. But really, that's just pointless.

It's not about who does it first; it's about who takes it to the next level.

37signals:

Let limitations guide you to creative solutions

There's never enough to go around. Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough people.

That's a good thing.

Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.

This is one of my all-time favorite posts. I read this several years ago and it's become a part of me ever since then.

For example:

• My iPod mini wasn't big enough to fit my entire music library. So I created Smart Playlists that would slowly rotate fresh music onto my iPod mini based on my listening habits.

• Twitter is only gives me 140 characters to express myself. So I take it as a challenge upon myself, "How creative or how much value can I provide in just 140 characters?"

• My monitor at the office isn't big enough. So I started using OSX's Expose, Spaces, Mission Control and mastered keyboard shortcuts for quickly switching apps/tabs/windows.

Time and time again, I find myself rationalizing, "I need more, More, MORE." But when I finally take a step back and start thinking outside the box, I always find creative ways to solve the same problem.

For more different ways of thinking, check out Getting Real by 37signals.

Read: Getting Real

by Jim Jarmusch

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows.

Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.

If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.

In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said:

"It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."

Show them their world in innovative ways, and let them interact with it like never before. In our experience, users really respond to polish, both in functionality and user interface. Go the extra mile. Give them more than they expect. And take them places where they have never been before.

In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience.

Innovation comes... from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.