The Blog of Brandon Milford - Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Design

Today I received my Free the Genie cards from Idea Champions. The "deck" contains 55 cards that are designed to, as they put it,
"Unlock the imagination,
Inspire quantum leaps, Awaken creativity, Spark insights and ahas!, Unleash genius, Free up stuck energy, Boost motivation, Increase adaptability, Diffuse doubt and fear, Accelerate change, Enhance collaboration, Build momentum, Close the gap between thought and action".

So I drew a card and it stated:
"Be a Beginner - What enhancements or simplification to your idea would please a child? What would a kid’s version of your product or service look like?"

I thought this was a great way to look at usability, in my case, for web applications. So I thought a little more about "….kid friendly web apps". Sounds a little strange, yes. But this really forces you to focus on the critical elements for making a user-friendly application. Think about visual cues such as colors, sizes of elements (buttons, text, etc), and keeping the interface uncluttered as to not distract the user from the task that was meant to be completed within a given screen. Just a five minute brainstorming session I thought I’d share.