Most of the studies that predict which books will be a hit, which tweet will get the most attention and what social media post will go “viral” have not been very successful.
There have been many studies to understand and evaluate which technologies will succeed and which of those will fail. These studies hope to find rules that will enable the companies developing the technologies to succeed but it often is difficult.
One formula that seems to work across the board is to make a technology frictionless to adopt and use. The more convenient that you make it for people to adopt and use, the more the technologies get utilized and taken-up.
Design thinking enables the same frictionless interaction between computers and humans.
Yes, the technology has to fulfill a need but more than that it needs to be simple and convenient and easy and unlike a car that needs friction to run, make the technology frictionless.
Consider some examples
Vaping as replacement for smoking – Makes it easy to smoke
Remote opening of the car – Makes it easy for you to open the car (distance to open is only one parameter)
Email : Makes it easy for people to communicate
Mouse – Makes it easy for people to interact with the screen
Ball point pen – makes writing convenient and removes hassle of wet ink
SMS – Makes the communication hassle free without apps and complexity
Word processor – removed the effort required to use a typewriter and correct mistakes
The quote that says “Build it and they will come” needs to be changed to “Make it simple and they will come”