Simple Ideas

Dead simple design is one thing. What about dead simple concepts?

I adore reading Seth Godin's stuff. I can start reading one of his books after dinner and have it finished by 1 a.m. - with notes in the margins. Then, I can go into work the next day and speak with authority on the concept. Simple.

Seth has made a career on simplifying. He's brilliant. He takes sometimes complex topics and makes them so obvious the rest of us blush.

I'm smart, but I suck at simplifying. Ask any of my old boyfriends, I complicate everything. ;)

The secret to simplification, though, is to pick one specific audience...very specific, like when Marcus Buckingham says to focus on one core audience, like when Wal-Mart focuses on 'the harried housewife'. The minute we start focusing on more than one potential reader, we lose everyone.

It's not that we don't WANT everyone to buy our book, product or service. It's just that we can't be effective trying to talk to everyone.

And we can't keep picking the same mass audience. Sorry, but college-educated males between the age 25-34 is SO overdone. Besides, that's not a core audience.

What if we said we are talking to the snap-happy digital amateur? Or the proud parents? Or the anal retentive shutterbug? Etc.?

The more time I spend at Flickr, the more I see their core audience: Frickin' Amazing Digital Artists. So many people at Flickr have a special eye for catching those unique and beautiful moments. They also kickass at Photoshop. They know how to use all of those crazy buttons and dials and settings on their digital cameras.

Everyone else is welcome, too, but I don't see them making it super simple to set up personal photo albums to send to the grandparents or the like. Flickr is one of those sites you join to interact with other people who appreciate digital art. It's beautifully simple.

Simple doesn't mean that something has to be simple to use, either. That's a whole other simple and, it turns out, not as important.

Simple just means that an idea doesn't have to be big or all-encompassing in order to wow.