Lessons in Utility from Discord
This article was first published by dmcityview.com
About a dozen years ago Jim Carrey released a brand new website. Now in mid-2000s Carrey was still one of the biggest stars in the world, not too far behind him were golden globe wins, the largest paychecks in filmmaking history, and cultural relevance that could probably only be rivaled by Mickey Mouse or the Beatles. Maybe that is a bit of an over statement but I think we can all agree around 2007 Jim Carrey still grabbed America’s attention. So when he released this beautifully illustrated and imaginative website that was equal parts Salavador Dali and Stanley Kubrick it was visually enthralling. Problem is the site had zero utility. Visitors had virtually nothing to do on the site except take a look, read a bio, and leave. Seeing as Jim Carrey is not trying to sell anything digital I doubt he cared, but his work of art website taught a valuable lesson to anyone paying attention; if you’re digital product doesn’t offer something worth doing, it will not last.
Utility is probably the hardest nut to crack when developing anything in tech. Hundreds of millions of applications have been developed and belly flopped upon release because they serve no functional purpose. The internet is littered with websites that offer nothing except a landing page. Even social networks as big as Twitter still struggle with what exactly do you do on it.
Now of course the super fans of Twitter will erupt and explain its utility immediately but continuing success is about achieving critical mass in a marketplace. For years Twitter has been on the brink of failure because its user growth is paltry and casual web users don’t know how to use it. That is the basis of utility; what is this product and how do I use it?
A fantastic, relatively new example is the chat application Discord. One of the most vibrant tech sectors is gaming. Videogames haul in billions of dollars, their users are passionate, there is an entire industry built around gamers simply watching other gamers play, and they want to socialize. Discord is basically a simply program chat space for gamers to discuss gaming through voice or text. Built for those purposes and basically nothing else, it doesn’t have connection issues and users are pretty much guaranteed to be connected without interruption. Also, seeing as how Discord “channels” are dedicated to specific topics and aren’t encumbered with video streaming or ancillary background services, users know they if you’re there to talk Destiny 2 or Red Dead Redemption then that’s all they’re going to get.
This is focused utility and Discord is growing by millions of users each month.. From this simple starting point, Discord has lasting potential to expand into other social chat services, but starting with a defined use and venue gives solid footing to become some version of Twitch of YouTube should they choose to go there.
The kings of the online environment have maintained at the top of their respective hills because they’ve never strayed from what users come there to do. YouTube is a video publishing and sharing site, Amazon is a marketplace for everything, Facebook is a platform to connect with friends and family, Google is primarilly a search platform. Yes, all of these brands have branched out to offer dozens of other services but their basic utility hasn’t strayed since day one.
As soon as a site redirects its primary service, it is highly likely its days are numbered. MySpace was Facebook first, now it is a hollow shell of a music site. Yahoo was a search engine and now it is ugly conglomeration of online media. User confusion is death and if you don’t thoroughly understand why someone invests time and energy in your product, you’re dead from the first line of code.
Patrick Boberg is a central Iowa creative media specialist. For more tech insights, follow him on Twitter @PatBoBomb
About a dozen years ago Jim Carrey released a brand new website. Now in mid-2000s Carrey was still one of the biggest stars in the world, not too far behind him were golden globe wins, the largest paychecks in filmmaking history, and cultural relevance that could probably only be rivaled by Mickey Mouse or the Beatles. Maybe that is a bit of an over statement but I think we can all agree around 2007 Jim Carrey still grabbed America’s attention. So when he released this beautifully illustrated and imaginative website that was equal parts Salavador Dali and Stanley Kubrick it was visually enthralling. Problem is the site had zero utility. Visitors had virtually nothing to do on the site except take a look, read a bio, and leave. Seeing as Jim Carrey is not trying to sell anything digital I doubt he cared, but his work of art website taught a valuable lesson to anyone paying attention; if you’re digital product doesn’t offer something worth doing, it will not last.
Utility is probably the hardest nut to crack when developing anything in tech. Hundreds of millions of applications have been developed and belly flopped upon release because they serve no functional purpose. The internet is littered with websites that offer nothing except a landing page. Even social networks as big as Twitter still struggle with what exactly do you do on it.
Now of course the super fans of Twitter will erupt and explain its utility immediately but continuing success is about achieving critical mass in a marketplace. For years Twitter has been on the brink of failure because its user growth is paltry and casual web users don’t know how to use it. That is the basis of utility; what is this product and how do I use it?
A fantastic, relatively new example is the chat application Discord. One of the most vibrant tech sectors is gaming. Videogames haul in billions of dollars, their users are passionate, there is an entire industry built around gamers simply watching other gamers play, and they want to socialize. Discord is basically a simply program chat space for gamers to discuss gaming through voice or text. Built for those purposes and basically nothing else, it doesn’t have connection issues and users are pretty much guaranteed to be connected without interruption. Also, seeing as how Discord “channels” are dedicated to specific topics and aren’t encumbered with video streaming or ancillary background services, users know they if you’re there to talk Destiny 2 or Red Dead Redemption then that’s all they’re going to get.
This is focused utility and Discord is growing by millions of users each month.. From this simple starting point, Discord has lasting potential to expand into other social chat services, but starting with a defined use and venue gives solid footing to become some version of Twitch of YouTube should they choose to go there.
The kings of the online environment have maintained at the top of their respective hills because they’ve never strayed from what users come there to do. YouTube is a video publishing and sharing site, Amazon is a marketplace for everything, Facebook is a platform to connect with friends and family, Google is primarilly a search platform. Yes, all of these brands have branched out to offer dozens of other services but their basic utility hasn’t strayed since day one.
As soon as a site redirects its primary service, it is highly likely its days are numbered. MySpace was Facebook first, now it is a hollow shell of a music site. Yahoo was a search engine and now it is ugly conglomeration of online media. User confusion is death and if you don’t thoroughly understand why someone invests time and energy in your product, you’re dead from the first line of code.
Patrick Boberg is a central Iowa creative media specialist. For more tech insights, follow him on Twitter @PatBoBomb
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