A colleague once told me, 'for the director of a digital agency, you're surprisingly analogue.'
I have a wall full of records. I prefer to read my news in print. I appreciate things that are handmade. And the sign on the office door is handpainted (by me).
They’re right, I realised.
It's partly because after a day in the office I prefer to switch off from my screens. But it's also because I believe that digital experiences are only worth having when they're worth experiencing.
William Morris, the Victorian designer, had a rule for the home that has always stuck with me:
Have nothing that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.William Morris
The same should be said for the digital experiences we invite onto our devices.
Because here's the thing:
Nothing beats real human experiences. Nothing. Ever.
When this is truly understood, we are empowered to see past the gimmicks — reminded that technology is there to serve us. To bring us together. To proxy the real experiences and interactions that would otherwise not be possible.
This is something that's understood by some of the biggest brands in technology.
Apple are about to do something they've resisted for years. This autumn, nearly a decade after Samsung, they're launching their first folding iPhone. They watched Samsung release iteration after iteration — each one with creases, crumpling and durability issues. Everyone else's mistakes became their research. They waited until they could do it meaningfully, worthy of their customer.
Leica are still making cameras that look almost identical to ones from the 1950s. They never chased the megapixel wars or cluttered their viewfinders with features nobody asked for. Just the same obsessive refinement of something they already did brilliantly — and a cult following that no amount of spec-sheet marketing could manufacture.
Pixar notoriously sit on ideas for years — shelved, revisited and shelved again — until the story is ready. Because for Pixar, CGI has never been the point. It's only ever been the vehicle. The emotion comes first and technology serves it.
To take your time and to look past the novelty
When clients come to me with a new digital product they're trying to sell, I'm overtly sceptical. I take my time to understand the problem they're trying to solve. The value they're offering that makes it worth yet another app — one their users must invite onto their already overcrowded devices.
And if there is real value, and it has a positive impact, then that extra work gives us the right foundation to tell the right story — in their brand, their messaging, and in how it's interacted with.
I encourage you to do the same. To take your time. To look past the novelty. And remember that technology serves the story, never the other way around.