Have you ever just gotten tired of this whole Web thing? Sick of DNS failures, device configurations, search strings, and authentication requests? Ever wish you could just point and click your way to interesting stuff, avoiding the inane hoops we jump through every day just to stay online?
You're not alone. While the industry screams along, developing new Web technology at a faster and faster pace, millions of consumers are just trying to get online. Look at the troubleshooting section of the manual that came with your VCR ("Is it plugged in? Do you have a tape in the machine?") to see just how far the Web is from a seamless experience.
Mark Hurst has a vision. As founder of Creative Good, he has dedicated himself to making the Web easier to use. His Web site offers daily columns on the fundamentals of using the Web for information and entertainment, and charges readers with a simple task: If something is confusing, write to the company responsible.
But he doesn't stop there. Creative Good is a consulting firm, too, offering to help those confused Web companies make their products usable.
Mark and I corresponded recently via email about the current state of the Web and what he's been doing to fix things.
JEFF: Tell me about how you got into this, why you started Creative Good, what its goals are, etc.
MARK: It all started with my master's thesis in computer science at MIT. I designed and wrote a program that allowed construction workers to calibrate satellite dishes. The worker goes into the rice paddy, pours the cement, bolts down a few things - and then has to pull out a PC to do some low-level hardware config. Well, the company's existing software was so hard to use that they were having to fly engineers out to Asia just to help set up these dishes! I wrote a program that simplified the calibration process: The user interface was so simple that any construction worker with zero computer experience could do the job. The workers loved it, the company loved it (less geeks to fly across the Pacific), and I graduated.
During the thesis work I delved into all the great literature on sensible design: Donald Norman, Ben Schneiderman, Richard Saul Wurman. I felt great about the thesis work because not only had I saved the company money, I had made lots of people's lives much easier.
JEFF: So why aren't you writing productivity apps for some large corporation?
MARK: I was hooked on the Web, and I knew I wanted a Web job - but most of the companies trolling for MIT geeks weren't interested in the Web. I saw my probable future as one spent under fluorescent lights in a Dilbert cubicle, coding my brains out, meeting deadlines, and helping a bottom line somewhere. Where was the joy of making people's lives easier, which I had tasted in my thesis work?
One day while reading Wired, I came across a help-wanted ad for a company that was getting involved in Internet games. Perfect: unconventional, Net-based, and involving games - a lifelong interest of mine.
In the 18 months I spent at Yoyodyne, I designed all the games and user interfaces that over a million Net users played. I designed email games, Web games, Shockwave, Java, real-time, chat, AOL, MSN, you name it. Any environment online, I was there. My official title at Yoyodyne was director of product development. By the time I left in January, they had secured US$4 million in funding, and had grown to 30 employees.
Why did I leave? Because my interests and the company's were beginning to diverge. Yoyodyne changed its focus from making games for the netizenry to being a marketing tool for companies. Yoyodyne's change was fine, but I wanted to "do my own thing" and focus on the end user, not the marketing.
So on 7 January, I started my new job as president of Creative Good. My mission is to make the Internet easier to use. My focus was back to where it had been during the thesis and the early days at Yoyodyne: making regular people's lives better and easier.
next page»
