The Adobe rut
April 17th, 2008 at 11:55 a.m.
A few days ago when the the Blue Flavor crew was out having lunch, we started discussing Expression Web and why there’s practically no interest in it at all. None of us have spent much time with EW’s suite of products, but there are good reasons why. The lack of interest can be boiled down to three main obstacles that anyone trying to carve out some space on Adobe Mountain will have to overcome.
1. Inertia
Learning new tools as complicated as Photoshop or Illustrator takes a whole lot of time that, technically speaking, we should not bill to clients. We’re paid to come up with design solutions and to demonstrate our creative problem-solving skills — our tools are merely vehicles that allow us to express those skills in a productive, profitable way.
As well, most seasoned designers are comfortable with their trusty tools and aren’t willing to invest the ten or more hours it takes to produce a design in a new application. If I were fighting this battle, I’d target the new products at younger designers who don’t have years of Adobe keyboard shortcuts under their belts.
2. There’s not a compelling reason why it’s better than the current tools
I’ve seen mile-long feature lists for new products, but I haven’t heard a single designer talk about being able to express his or her ideas more quickly or effectively as a result of using it. The features may be cool, but I want to see the results.
3. Designers are inherently brand whores
This is a big one. Designers create brands, so they’re naturally hyper-sensitive to subtleties of a particular brand’s attributes and reputation. Why else would there an odd obsession with Apple products within the community? I’m as guilty as the next designer, but I’ve accepted this as strictly a part of the web culture.
Take Microsoft, for instance. In my mind, Microsoft’s brand is forever tarnished, in much the same way that Pontiac’s is. Think about it — it doesn’t matter how many cool cars Pontiac produces, they’re still Pontiacs. If I were Microsoft, I’d make a spin-off division with a completely new brand marketed directly at designers. It worked for Xbox, and it might just work for the design community.
Introducing new tools into a saturated market is an uphill battle, but it’s not as if there’s no room at all. I’ve been impressed with a lot of tools built off Apple’s core image that have recently emerged, but I’ve yet to see a product that overcomes all the obstacles I’ve listed here.
It’s rare that a day goes by where I don’t hear someone cursing an Adobe product; and given Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, they could really use the competition.
This article was originally posted to the Blue Flavor blog, so please direct your comments and discussion over there and we’ll talk.