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Mike Wagner started a new meme I guess I couldn’t help joining in on. I mean, everyone else is doing it. The idea is ‘Thin Slicing‘ - “Thin-slicing refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.”

So here’s my 5 Thin-Slicing Observations on using new software or web application.

1. What is it? If I don’t know within thirty seconds of what the application does I give up. If I can’t decipher in that amount of time than I can bet using the software will not be a valuable experience for me.

2. Is it useful? I’m a big proponent of what I have coined ‘Real Life Software’. This is software that helps me solve problems and automate daily mundane tasks and processes. The most useful software out there does one thing and one thing good (Google Search, Backpack, Zillow, BlogDesk)

3. Thin, Clean, and Neat That’s right, I like my software thin clean and neat. There’s nothing worse than bloated software that takes forever to load and has way more features than it needs. Yes, I’m talking to you Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat.

4. Usability This is a factor that generally separates good software from bad. What’s the learning curve? Do I need a manual to use the software or can I jump right in, get work done, and close it? Obviously the latter is best. I want to be able to launch the application and know intuitively how it works. If you want viral software that spreads WOM then make it easy. People don’t recommend software that’s impossible to figure out how to use.

5. Design Yeah, I’m superficial when it comes to software and web applications. Design is at the heart of the user experience. Design includes layout, typography, content organization, images, and much more. Awhile back TJ wrote a post that I love referencing called ‘First Impressions‘. Your mind is made up within the first twentieth of a second as to whether you find a website visually appealing. If your software is not visually appealing to me I’ll leave without ever trying it. (delicious and google are the only exceptions thus far).

Check out Applications I Use and what TJ uses on his Mac.

Tags: Software, Design, Thin Slicing, Meme

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