Are you [App] Experienced?

Nice but the proof is in the typing

Everyday for the last 12 months, there hasn't been a dearth of new applications that comes up on my feeds or via network shout-outs. Of course, there will be a bunch of crap or re-hashes of previous app or tools that were either extremely popular or better iterations of incomplete and poorly designed ones but overall, it's all for good because we users are, after all, still in control. We are free to sign-up or ignore, become early adopters or fence-sit without no real horrible consequence except loss of bragging rights.

But is it really just bragging rights? Or do people really find value in the app, tool or system? While most (ok, hundreds of thousands) get it, why do others fail to see that it could also be worth trying out?

Tom Foremski has an interesting post on 'experiential gap'.

" ..... why Twitter is so interesting is one that cannot be conveyed unless you are in it. This is one of the hallmarks of many important applications such as blogging, Facebook, etc. You can't and won't be able "get it" unless you are in it. We have moved beyond "generation gap" differences in technology use and moved into the "experiential gap" in terms of use and understanding. Your experience with an application such as Twitter provides an understanding that cannot be communicated by reading about it or even being told about it.

He goes on to provide more details about what are the characteristics of powerful apps and why they are successful. Oh, I may have to add that 'digital intimacy' thingy as the clincher.

Read more about it here.