I think the greatest challenge in the world is nudging people, in aggregate, to have them do what you want. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but in helping solve their problems when they may be fearful of change. Applying this to technology, it’s understanding how people interact with both software and hardware. Technology is the future, but it’s also today.
It’s sort of like Quantum Mechanics: as soon as you observe it, its behavior changes. That’s what makes studying people’s interaction with software equally fascinating and frustrating.
For example, imagine trying to describe a sunset to a blind person. You can talk about it until you’re blue in the face, but they won’t “get it” until they experience it.
Take Twitter for instance: “I didn’t get Twitter until I got Twitter”. Seems like a pretty apt description. Outsiders think twitter is about telling others the stupid stuff you do, like “I just ate a cheeseburger!”. Well, there’s some of that, but the real value is making new friends, finding a job, hearing about news as it happens, discovering new things, and even laughing at something silly. It’s the benefits, not the features, that make people fall in love with software.
The most challenging part about all of this, however, is trying to help people experience these benefits. The most subtle differences can create the most dramatic differences. Take Foursquare and Gowalla, for instance. Foursquare had badges, Gowalla had backpacks. I think we know how that turned out.
And no matter how successful you have been with another piece of technology, that doesn’t mean you’ll be successful in a different technology, no matter how close.
The challenge is the subtlety…
