Reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand these days, I was struck once again by her vision of society and what part the “people” as a concept play in it. She believes, and I am completely paraphrasing and interpreting here, so please don’t quote me on this that one should not follow what is socially acceptable, but one’s own voice. Her characters are very ego-centric (not to be taken as a bad thing) strong minded people who will go against popular beliefs, and public opinion to pursue their objectives. In reading a completely different article on the Global curse of Comic Sans i couldn’t help but be reminded of Miss Rand.
“None of this, however, stops the public from loving it. In Typophile’s online forums, a designer rightly observes that the vast majority of laymen love Comic Sans. “Why do you think it’s all over the place?” he asks. “No ‘decent’ corporation cares what a minority of specialists thinks.”
And he’s right. Who cares if a small minority of deeply principled letterform diehards care about the wanton proliferation of a font that single-handedly throws typographic evolution back, say, a few thousand years or so?
Clearly, there’s no accounting for taste.”
So where does that put us as designers? Keeping in mind user-generated content and user-centered approaches are capturing the imagination of a number of business, when we listen to users, how carefully do we have to listen ? More importantly should we follow what they feel they need, or seek for the nuggets of untold stories and opportunities that lie in their tales of discontent, critique and apprehension?
Sometimes there is power in being the first and only. As i look at the Web 2.0 revolution, I wonder if we would be building all this, if it weren’t for the active 1% of the population? Should businesses concentrate on analyzing what the 86 % that just view content wants? Or look at their own products, cease the opportunity to do something radically different and let the 86% follow. It’s about radical innovation versus incremental innovation of course and we all know which one is the more dangerous.
As Steve Jobs says:
“I understand the appeal of a slow burn […] but personally I’m a big-bang guy.[…] The risk with a fast burn,” he continued, “is that it exposes you to your enemies. You’re going to need a lot of money to fight thieves.”
I’m sure he’s read the Fountainhead.