What happens when your company/industry leaves a gap in the User Experience of their products and/or services?
Often, a “bridge-builder” seizes the opportunity to step in, and rightfully meet the demands of the users. Indeed, if there is enough demand for this bridge to be built, whole companies can sprout-up and thrive from its daily use.
Companies such as Mint Software Inc. and 37 Signals have, in a sense, become bridge-builders, building the bridge between offerings of existing industry software and those distinct needs and expectations of software users.
Any bank small or large, had an opportunity (seized by Mint) to offer clients useful and intuitive budgeting, expenditure/investment tracking, and debt-reducing features. In fact, such a bank, through such an offering, could have significantly enhanced its competitive strength. Now – such banks are literally paying Mint to advertise to their users.
Jason Fried – Co-founder, 37signals mused recently “I love that small businesses don’t have to use crappy software anymore…I love to be able to build software for them…A lot of big companies, they take their big flagship product and… pull a bunch of sh!t out of it and call it small business software – which is an insult to small businesses… – We get to hear how our products are changing their lives.”
Rest assured, there are significant benefits to meeting the needs of your users, if you are unable or unwilling to capitalize on the opportunity, others will.
