Lessons from a Kindle

Over the holidays, I received an Amazon Kindle for my birthday. I turned it on, took a look at the first page, and swiped my hand across the screen to go to the next page.



It took me a good 3-4 swipes before I realized that I needed to press the ">" button to go to the next page.

That got me thinking. The Fortune 50 company that I work for always laments about "Habit Adoption" being such a challenge. Many blamed failed product launches on habit adoption issues. We dump tons of marketing money into helping people form different habits. Why had I formed such a strong habit from my iPhone that it took me that much time to unlearn it for the Kindle?

Because it's freakin' intuitive. Run your hand across the screen, the page moves with it. It's really easy to get used to something that's intuitive. My Fortune 50 company (and other ones out there) should put the challenge to our design folks to make the product so freakin' easy to use that you don't hafta worry about habit adoption.

Lessons from a Kindle