Vision: beating competitors on your terms
TIP: Vision developmentFind out more about vision development and how it could help your business.In 2001 Nintendo was in trouble. Its GameCube console had just launched – well after the PlayStation2 which was consolidating Sony’s position as the dominant games console manufacturer. It was clear to all that Nintendo was playing technological catch-up, creating a console that fell short of its competitor’s in power and scope.
Nintendo’s next console would have to do better. But according to Nintendo’s iconic designer Sigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo felt it could only do better by doing something different ‘The consensus was that power isn’t everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can’t coexist. It’s like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.’
So while Sony and Microsoft both rushed to develop more powerful high definition consoles, Nintendo stuck with standard resolution hardware and instead sought to develop a console that would appeal to non-gamers.
Not everyone was happy. ‘Many of our employees initially wanted high-definition graphics,’ Miyamoto admitted after the Wii’s launch, ‘But they agreed with us that graphics wouldn’t matter if the games weren’t fun to play.’
Nintendo’s vision led it to produce a console that was smaller, quieter, cheaper and most strikingly simpler to use than either of its competitors. It was an instant hit. In its first six months in the US, it sold more units than Microsoft’s XBox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 combined.
Vision helps you win your battles (Wii boxing)What is striking here is the ability of a giant company to transform its fortunes in a short period of time. Miyamoto makes it clear that there was disagreement within Nintendo, but also that something was powerful enough to overcome that disagreement: a vision.
Nintendo’s vision of a console that everyone would want to play meant that designers realised they had been solving the wrong problems – people needed accessibility and simplicity, not power and complexity.
Of course many companies understand the necessity of setting a vision. The problem is that they set the wrong vision.
A typical vision statement might be:
- To be the World’s best online community for photographers
The problem with this vision is that it lacks focus. Being ‘the best’ invites judgement on other people’s terms. No one in the industry would call Wii the best games console of its generation. But the most fun? Certainly.
So how do you create a vision for your website?
In setting out a vision, you need to establish four things:
- What problem you are trying to solve
- What you want to exclude
- A sense of scope
- Examples that illustrate the vision
Taking this format, Nintendo’s vision for the Wii would have looked something like this:
- We need to create a games console that grows the market by appealing to non-gamers. Instead of trying to be the most powerful, we need to focus on letting users play together and have fun, like traditional group activities, rather than being an expensive media hub.
Notice that the vision looks at problems, not at specific features. This is crucial. The purpose of the vision is to establish what the design is for. The vision will give you a rationale for deciding which features to implement and how.
If you can’t confidently write a distinctive vision that fits this format, then put your project on hold and take the time to fix it (our vision workshops don’t take long – as little as one week for a small project). The difference will be that you take on the opposition on your terms.
To find out more about setting a vision, you can call Giles, on +44 (0) 117 946 3930, or email Giles here.
About the author
Giles has been making products more usable for over fifteen years. He was President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association from 2003-2007 and speaks frequently on usability in the UK and overseas. He writes on usability for Revolution magazine and was one of the editors of the PAS 78 accessibility guide from the British Standards Institute. Email Giles, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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Great post Giles. I myself am guilty of using ‘To be the best/biggest…’ when creating a vision statement.
I’ll be using those four points of you mention for each vision statement from now on.
Wow. What a great way to look at writing a vision. It can actually make writing one more fun … and useful! I love the idea of leaving the features for later and focusing on the problems you wish your business to solve.