Scoble asks What Will Steve Jobs Kill Next?
It’s a good list, if not misleading (the iPhone will have a keyboard equivalent, for instance) but shows how designers should be ruthless in challenging assumptions, and cutting out what isn’t necessary.
Think about web analytics software. We’re overwhelmed by silly reports, useless visualizations, and bizarre multidimensional slice-and-dice capabilities that don’t answer the business questions.
Junk is the ultimate merchandise. The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise, he degrades and simplifies the client. — William S. Burroughs
For a similar take, see BI vendors just don’t get it.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. — Michelangelo
So, what are the business questions to answer?
Hi Peter — the business questions are as varied as the businesses that use the web. This isn’t a cop-out answer: analytics vendors simply aren’t thinking about how to present data in ways that allow users to ask and then answer business questions. I’m not talking about natural language – I’m talking about business events, business drivers, business levers. What analytics software is approaching problems from a business perspective? Instead we get rollups and crosstabs and multidimensional foobar, starting with the low-level data and summing it, then slicing it by day/hour/demo. That’s not business, especially in the web world.
Best of luck in your new venture! When do we learn more?