Media, Technology and Convenience

People are naturally lazy, in general. Yes, many of these people are quite productive, but very few people will do extra work when they know they don’t have to. So in the Darwinian world of technology, the more convenient technology usually wins out.

Today, the new iPad news app The Daily was released, and the focus has yet again turned to the now-ubiquitous phrase “Print is dead!” If you only consider the little sliver of the printing industry that comprises newspaper publishers, then there is definitely validity to that statement. The issue is both more complex and more simple than “The Web is free and cool” or “Print is old and expensive,” however. It’s all about convenience. I’ve included a handy flowchart below:

Let’s play with the process a bit. Newspapers:

• Can it be done digitally? Yes: Easily.
• Is it more inconvenient in its digital form? No: Much the opposite - distributing text that was typed mere hours beforehand to your doorstep is an expensive logistical undertaking, and all it does for the end user is give them bulky, expensive sheets of paper that contain information that’s already several hours old. For those who know how to use the web, the answer is obviously no.

Verdict: Endangered

If you replace “digitally” with “the old way,” you can apply this to any technology throughout history. Carriage versus Automobile? Automobile wins because it’s more convenient. Carriage versus Train? The carriage wins because nobody’s going to buy a train engine and have train tracks coming out of their garage, even if the train has better performance and capability. Then you take a look at what really happened in history and compare your results. The train never killed the carriage. The automobile did.

The key point here is that capability and performance and even quality can wither in the face of convenience. Look at the Mac App Store: an individual app’s installer can do more, could theoretically be faster and nicer-looking than the App Store, but the App Store is preferred because it’s so ridiculously convenient compared to the old ways.

So, if you’re creating anything for other people to use, then remember that you can’t go far wrong by emphasizing convenience over all else.