[caption id="attachment_2935" align="alignnone" width="650" caption="The typical "We need an app!" guy"][/caption] Kristofer Layon wrote a wonderful post called Why content strategy is always more important than web and mobile strategies, which reminds us that sometimes the best strategies don't necessary involve mobile, apps, social channels, or even the web. This is an important point to make as the sheer number of available channels grows like weeds. Web. iPhone apps. Android Apps. Facebook. Twitter. Pinterest. Email. Text marketing. WP7 apps (hey, who the hell knows?). The. List. Goes. On. Just because something exists doesn't mean we need to act on it. Louis CK says it better: I can't count the number of times someone's asked me "Hey, how long would it take to make a mobile site for XYZ?" The answer they get from me is never the simple integer they're looking for. Always ask "Why?". What's this project about? Who's it for? What's in it for the users? Why a website? Why an app? Why do anything at all? We designers, developers, programmers or whatever are the ones in the thick of it. We often know way more about what these technologies can do and what they're good and bad at. It's up us to challenge top-down, buzzword-riddled, reactionary decisions and ask questions. It's how you prevent stupid shit from getting made. [caption id="attachment_2941" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Multiple mobile apps for a mid-western fast food chain: good idea?"][/caption] I'm not saying you can't gain anything from exploring all this new stuff. But if you're distracting yourself from what really matters then you should reconsider your strategy. There's lots more stuff out there, but the amount of time to address it all doesn't change. So take a step back and focus on what really matters.
