“Okay, class please open Netscape navigator by double-clicking the icon.”
“Now click on the address bar. It is the one that has the web address in it and go to www.yahoo.com. That is Y-A-H-O-O!”
It's 1997 and I am sitting in the school library being taught how to effectively search the internet. At the time there were a couple of popular options. You had Altavista, Yahoo, webcrawler, and my personal favorite Ask Jeeves.
Every time I would open up the web browser I would head over to Ask Jeeves. The reason why I loved Ask Jeeves the most was that it promoted the use of questions. I didn't have to worry about adding plus signs and quotation marks. I could just ask my buddy Jeeves “how do you play games online” and boom I got results! Later on, as I got more accustomed to the internet I stopped using Ask Jeeves.
But the reason why I used it initially was because of the easy user experience. On the surface, it took the guesswork out of searching the internet. I was able to ask it a question like I would my teacher.
ChatGPT
Now let's fast forward 26 years a similar phenomenon is taking place with ChatGPT. If you are the 5 people who have not heard of ChatGPT then I will bring you up to speed.
Well, how about I let it speak for itself:
As ChatGPT itself pointed out one of the reasons it is so popular is that it “can recognize and interpret different dialects, slang, and colloquialisms, which makes it easier for users to communicate with me using their natural language. This ability to adapt to the user's language can help facilitate more natural and efficient interactions.”
This to me is what makes ChatGPT revolutionary. The fact that you can ask a simple question the way you normally would and get an answer. It is the exact reason why I loved Ask Jeeves all those years ago.
This is what you need to do when building a product. Make it so simple that people will WANT to use it. All too often we are forced to sit through instructional videos and read the wiki’s for the software or device.
ChatGPT has shown us that people
Don’t care how it works
Will use your product if you make it’s super simple
When you log into ChatGPT you are just greeted with the prompt with some examples and that’s it.
ChatGPT is a great example of how a simple user interface and experience can propel you to great heights.
I will leave you with a quote from famed designer Dieter Rams.
“Good design, when it's done well, becomes invisible. It's only when it's done poorly that we notice it”
Thank you so much for your support! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or leave a comment.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn and I am trying to be more active on Twitter. Would really appreciate a follow there!
If you enjoyed what you read join 700+ founders, investor, clinicians, and executives learning how to create better healthtech products every week!
I hope you have a great day!