The Death of Usability(and Other Peeks at the Future)

Baltimore Parlay

Troy Winfrey

4.22.10

The Big Deal:From Scarcity to Abundance

Computing Works...

...and It’s Getting Even Better.

But Here’s the Best.

So What’s Next?

The Good: the iStuff and the App Store

“Web” 3.0

• Taking computing everywhere

• It does stuff

• Will lead to massive capital infusion, like Google AdWords

• Look for Android ubiquity

The Ugly: Agile

Engineers engineering their way out of engineering problems.

Useful for the “how” of building

Cuts out users, ironically

Defensive reaction?

The Bad: The Death of Usability, Or, Three Fatal Business Models

1: Collapse of the MiddleValue then

Value soon

2: De Facto Standard

3: Product-Profit Multiplier

Past Usability...Suitability

• How we build is increasingly less important than what

• Abundance means commoditization; innovation is the only way out

• Deep user understanding is the only reliable way to innovate

• Innovation continually shifts when models and markets do