cre8Buzz Blog

12:00

Remember the blinking VCR clocks? Although over 3/4 of all users were never able to program those clocks, somehow it was still a constant sign of technical incompetence and insecurity. But the problem wasn’t you. It was the engineers. Remember when there was a rash of “spontaneous accelerations” with a certain model Audi? The engineers concluded that it was driver error, because no mechanical failure could be identified. These are both examples of poorly designed user interfaces. And regardless of the context, when the user interface is unsatisfactory it most certainly the fault of the engineers, and not the users.

We approach a lot of people about joining cre8Buzz every week. And a good portion complain that they tried MySpace or Facebook, and they didn’t “get it” or had trouble navigating. Some even assume that this is because under 30s have some magical ability to master such things and they are just too old to social network. While greater experience online certainly helps most younger users get past a poor UI, it is certainly not a special universal skill. So, the reluctant folks just assume that all VCRs are going to be equally difficult to set, that all social networks are fundamentally alike. But then along comes something else…

Tivo blew away all conceptions of what a TV recording device could be. While it is far too early in the game for us to make any Tivo-esque claims, we do have a passionate core of early adopters as Tivo did. And I was one of them. As difficult as it was to explain how Tivo worked and how fundamentally better it was, the differences between typical social networks and cre8Buzz are even more abstract. You have to use it to “get it”. With Tivo that leap required paying several hundred dollars and committing to a monthly fee. While cre8Buzz is free, it takes a commitment of time to perceive the value, and everyone is just so busy these days.

So a big thanks for all those users who are our evangelists. Keep telling your friends and relatives that they can set their own clocks at cre8Buzz. Don’t judge us by MySpace, who still have the gas and brake pedals so close a nasty accident is just around the corner.

John