The best definition of engineering elegance …

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When ‘Good Enough’ product design isn’t

Wired Magazine 17.09 published an article by Robert Capps about the philosophy of ‘Good Enough’ product design. The article uses the Flip video camera as an example of a low-cost, feature-reduced product that disrupted an established market. Capps’ article identifies ease-of-accessibility as the new measure of product success and shows how the Flip camera, Predator aircraft and Kaiser Permanente’s micro-clinics demonstrate the success of good-enough design.

Another champion of good-enough design is Basecamp project tracking software produced by 37-Signals. Basecamp’s minimalist feature-set has attracted one million users and rates highly in 37-Signals Customer Satisfaction Surveys (1). But not everyone is happy with Basecamp. In a recent post to Basecamp’s API forum Richard K from Souldesign (2) was critical of 37 Signals reluctance to add features requested by Users. In reply David Heinemeier, of 37 Signals, stated ‘We can’t be all things to all people, but we try to be a lot of things to many.’

Richard K and David Heinemeier’s exchange illustrates an important aspect of good-enough design; good-enough is great if it meets your needs. Knowing what your needs are is crucial to benefiting from good-enough products. Typically good-enough products are cheaper and incur a low down-side cost for trying to use them. For example the Flip camera costs USD 150 and Basecamp is free for one project.

The insight we can take-away is this; always try a good-enough product if available. Use the good-enough product as long as it meets your needs. If your needs change switch to something else; don’t expect the good-enough product to change for you.

Refs
1. Basecamp Facts https://37bp.backpackit.com/pub/1271221

2. Basecamp API forum topic ‘Listen to clients’

http://groups.google.com/group/37signals-api/browse_thread/thread/cade85cbd39628e8