Salon Management Tips from SalonBiz Software

“As if life isn’t difficult enough as a techy, I’m about to make life even tougher by admitting something that most self-respecting techies would never admit to. I quite like Apple products.”

There you go, I’ve only gone and said it. That’s me ostracised from the technical community for life. Whilst most in the technical community view apple products as little more than silly toys for civilians (techy speak for non-techies), I actually think apple have completely changed our expectations of what we expect from technology. Let me explain.

Remember portable stereos from the 1980′s?

Maybe this is one of the reasons we all use to be a bit fitter. I remember saving up for one of these. There was a simple principle with electronic equipment like stereos, namely, the more money you spent the more buttons you got. More money = more buttons = more features = bigger stereo. So what about the most popular and successful personal music device of today: the iPod. How Many buttons does the ipod have? Exactly! It represents a complete change in our thinking and expectations of what good technology should be.

This is why I like some apple products. Because they reject popular thinking, and look to redefine how we use and interact with technology, and I always admire anyone who challenges the norms of the day in order to push ideas and technologies forwards. At the risk of contradicting myself, this thinking is actually nothing new, but continues to be as relevant as ever.

Almost 100 years ago, a famous English illustrator called Heath Robinson drew a series of very famous illustrations depicting amazingly over-complex machines to perform very simple domestic duties. One of my favourites is his famous ‘potato peeling ‘machine shown below. Although his name is now synonymous with objects being ‘thrown together’ and poorly constructed, his illustration where actual a satire on whether the new mechanised age made life easier for people, or whether life had actually become more complicated. Sounds familiar eh?

This continues to be one of the great challenges for those of us who work in technology. Are we genuinely making life easier for the communities and individuals we are building for, or are we just adding to the noise. I think to achieve this, we should be following the principles used to build the ipod. This is a process I like to call “iPodification”.

There are two main principles of iPodification:

iPodification principle number 1: One button is good.

Although in practice when building software, it is not always possible to have only one button on a screen, this should still be our goal. Too much software is still being built like the stereos of old we looked at earlier i.e. they are a confusing myriad of buttons, lists, popups, toolbars, icons, pictures, sliders etc etc. And as the software is developed further, even more stuff is added! Many software packages now need a degree in computing science just to use it. I believe good software should be removing stuff from the screen, not adding to it. And just like the ipod, to me the perfect screen is one with a single button on it which when you press , quickly does exactly what you wanted it to do in the first place.

iPodification principle number 2: No instructions is good.

One of the very interesting features of the iPod to me is that most users can just take it out of the box and start using it. I have no idea if it is accompanied by the usual 200 page manual that seems to come as standard with any other piece of electrical equipment, but if it does, my guess is that most remain unread.

The challenge to those of us who build technology is to build things that people can intuitively work out without instructions. How many people do you know who have ever been on a facebook training course? So how does everyone know how to use it? They just pick it up, and often enjoy doing it. However, if you ask most people if they enjoy software training , many of those responses could probably not be published here!

So our challenge is to “iPodify” software through a process I call “iPodification”. Make it simple, and make it easy and intuitive to use. And just to finish, why do I think this is so important. Because building software becomes much easier when you finally grasp the rather awkward fact that at least 95% of those people using it would rather be doing something else. Our job is to help them complete their tasks as simply and quickly as possible, and allow civilians to crack on with doing something far more interesting instead.

Related posts:

1. Finding the Way
2. Empower your Front Desk Staff through Role Playing
3. Welcome