There’s this tech company which you might have heard about. Its app is used by people younger than you, it’s been stigmatised (to a degree), IPO’d, billion-dollar-valuated, been through some scandals and everything else. It’s called Snap Inc.

Beyond what I’ve mentioned about, erudites believe that one of the main reasons why Snapchat came into attention was their constraining feature – pictures disappear after (up to) 10 seconds. That’s the rules of the game and you’ve got to respect the house rules. Don’t like them – that’s fine, go make your own app.

That’s one aspect of how they shaped their experience. Twitter with 140 characters. This article can go on and on finding examples like that but that’s not my point.

My point is this:

A constraint is what shapes an experience.

Corollary: Experiences are bound to their constraints.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean that one has to add constraints. Sometimes they’re added by “nature”. Artificial nature, if you want. I’m sitting on my couch as I write this and looking at my turned-off TV. It’s got its own ecosystem of apps which have their constraints.

Buttons are (significantly) bigger. Typing is to be avoided. Voice is to be preferred (the remote has even got a dedicated voice command button). Screen transitions are in a different manner, given that we’re talking about a “50 inch screen as opposed to a smartphone’s 5” screen.

Different remotes, different constraints

A PlayStation’s got its “walls”/constraints as well. Think about the remote of a PS4 vs a TV. The first one has two joysticks + 4 arrow pointers whereas TV remotes usually only have the latter.

And here’s the part I didn’t mention regarding the TV: all these are designed for the smart capabilities – the dedicated apps, web browser etc. Forget the traditional TV, we’re looking at the next use cases of the Television Device.

VCRs, DVD players and Blu-ray players had different constraints.

Cool. Why should I care?

Because sometimes we have to think inside these walls we have naturally, sometimes we have to break them and some few times we have to create new ones. Every choice has its cost but if you think what you’re giving your tribe is of a higher value than the cost, then do it and see if you’re right.

What do I mean practically: if you think coming up with a new console and have something of higher value than your counterparts (Xbox and PlayStation), let’s see. If you want to not follow the status quo and their type of remote but rather come up with a motion focused experience, then pay the price of not following (having people ask what the hell is that) and see if you were right. And call it Wii, by the way.

About Ch Daniel

I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.

I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app

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