Leverage Simplicity and the Desire For Information

From time to time, my mom will clip a newspaper article or send me an email some info of technology that she finds interesting. This morning, I received an email from my mom about the Airport Remote app:

If you are a developer, you’re probably thinking “what’s the big deal?” If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably thinking “meh, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Tripit, and a thousands of iPhone apps already provide me with this information.” If you’re my mom, you’re dazzled.

I started thinking about when I travel and what technology I use to make my traveling experience better. I typically buy my tickets on Orbitz. Orbitz sends me text messages about flight times and if there will be delays. I know that other apps exist that do this very same thing as well. However, when I’m at the airport, I still find myself stopping to look at the blue screen. At every single airport I do this despite me knowing that Orbitz will inform me of any changes.

Why do I do this? It’s the same reason that I tend to check Clicky multiple times a day when I only use to check Google Analytics once a day. It’s called insecurity work. We as humans are a bit insecure. We need to feel in control. We feel that we have more control when we have more information. That’s why this app is successful; because it’s simple and we’re insecure.

So if you can build a product that can leverage people’s insatiable appetite for information and do so in a simple manner, I would bet that you’re product will succeed.

Follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP Richardson

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If you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter. Follow @jprichardson

-JP