Why are we doing this?
Why are products lacking soul.
Products are lacking souls. Every business is extremely driving towards growth, we all know business needs to make money to keep the fire burning, but not at the detriment of making life harder for the people you promise to take care of. The phrase "money is the root to all evil" stands out here more than ever. Lately, majority of the tech I use, the big and the indies hacker, they all have been really frustrating to say the least. Cookies, paywalls, ads, outrageous subscriptions and unnecessary “fugazi” that leaves one wondering what’s the essence of it all. The roots of these problems pointed to just one thing — money!
How it all begin
What if we take a step back, and asked ourselves, what’s the goal of it all, why did we decide to start a business? Earlier it used to be about making something that helps other, solving a problem and providing a solution you will like to see in the world. When did we kill this, where did the hunger to suck life out of people will claim to care about emerges? Before tech, most of the solution design that was tailored to just one thing, one thing — to solve problems for others. But that is lacking today, tools are made to suck life out of you, and the people like me and you who experience it all both the sweet side when it all started, to the bitter side were seeing now. I can barely use any software this days without headaches and anxiety, we are solving one problem and creating another one for people we claim to care about. Love is no longer poured into software. I recently tried to cancel my ClassPass membership and the number of steps I have to take is unbelievable absurd, 8 steps, 8 steps and I am not counting. I am required to scroll to the bottom of it before I can even click a button.
Research shows that 60% of inherited wealth is lost by the second generation and 90% by the third. So what’s the fuss and the fixation on chasing growth and billions?! The most you can spend in your lifetime is ~$5m. The point is we need to actually start building product that helps us all.
The lack of accessibility
The most accessible in accessibility that we all are clamouring for is by making our tools accessible to all in the first place! I know it sounds redundant, but this is lacking. No love is pour into software and services anymore. One example that comes to mind is the Google Map App, and the culprit here is Google map, first I cannot mention the amount of time I have been directed to the worst place, or should I mentioned when searching for specific locations and you’re bombarded with irrelevant Ads that is not related to what you are looking for. If the most simple things like our navigation app that is supposed to make life easy for us all, is already this messed up with ads, complexity — imagine the one that are tailored to profit. Website experienced is a battle with cookies and pops ads, every website looks the same and the one that tried to be different will frustrate you with unnecessary interactions. A simple software, want to make money over you through out your lifetime by hooking you up with unnecessary subscriptions. All in the name of growth and profit!
Google Map refused to show the important details — distance. And all the recommended location are 7km+ away.
A cry for help!
I have had to recently canceled my Adobe software subscriptions because I can’t afford it anymore. This is a loud cry for help. The amount of money I am paying for services are not worth it anymore, we used to own software outrightly. Where did we stumbled.
I implore us to start asking important question at the core of strategy, a simple question of “Why are we doing this?” and putting humans back at the center of design can bring art and love back to our services and tools like the people that precedes us does, building an actual tools at a fraction that still works until today with care for humanity, STEAM or STEM, whatever we want to call it — we need to infuse caring about the people that we serve than people who’ve made profit and expecting the number to multiply.
This is unfiltered, I just wanted to rant after my Google Map app misdirect me multiple times, and refuse to show me a nearby service I requested for, and a fitness subscription won’t let me cancel until my 8th clicks. We need to do better.
Thanks for reading!