The 7 Levels of Tech Design

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About this video

Video Title: The 7 Levels of Tech Design
Channel: Enrico Tartarotti
Speakers: Enrico Tartarotti
Duration: 00:17:29

Overview

This video breaks down the intricate world of tech product design into seven distinct levels, ranging from the smallest visual details to the grandest strategic visions. The presenter uses examples from well-known tech companies like Google, Apple, Spotify, and Netflix to illustrate how each level contributes to the overall user experience, functionality, and commercial success of a product.

Key takeaways

Level 1: Details: Focuses on the minute visual elements that, while often unnoticed, are crucial for usability. An example is Google's early minimalistic design and the use of a copyright notice to indicate page load completion.
Level 2: Interactions & Behaviors: Explores how the way a product behaves and interacts with the user shapes their experience. Examples include the detection of phone calls while using a banking app for security and the one-finger zoom in Google Maps.
Level 3: Technical Innovation: Covers the underlying technology that enables the product's functionality, such as capacitive multi-touch, durable screens (Gorilla Glass), and efficient batteries.
Level 4: Defaults & Manipulation: Examines how pre-set options (defaults) can significantly influence user behavior and create specific social dynamics, as seen with read receipts on WhatsApp versus iMessage, and Netflix's auto-playing next episodes.
Level 5: Structural Design & Logic: Discusses making fundamental architectural decisions about how an app's logic is structured to enhance elegance and scalability, such as transforming all elements into tags for easier filtering and management, as implemented in Flask and Notion.
Level 6: Product Strategy & Reframing: Highlights how a shift in perspective or the strategic application of existing technology can create immense value, like Loom reframing video for asynchronous communication to replace meetings, or Superhuman reframing email for speed and efficiency.
Level 7: Visionary Innovation: Encompasses groundbreaking, transformative ideas that change entire industries, but which require all the preceding levels to be successfully realized, exemplified by the iPhone's success compared to earlier touchscreen devices like the Sony Magic Link.

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About this video

Video Title: The 7 Levels of Tech Design
Channel: Enrico Tartarotti
Speakers: Enrico Tartarotti
Duration: 00:17:29

Overview

Key takeaways

Level 1: Details: Focuses on the minute visual elements that, while often unnoticed, are crucial for usability. An example is Google's early minimalistic design and the use of a copyright notice to indicate page load completion.
Level 2: Interactions & Behaviors: Explores how the way a product behaves and interacts with the user shapes their experience. Examples include the detection of phone calls while using a banking app for security and the one-finger zoom in Google Maps.
Level 3: Technical Innovation: Covers the underlying technology that enables the product's functionality, such as capacitive multi-touch, durable screens (Gorilla Glass), and efficient batteries.
Level 4: Defaults & Manipulation: Examines how pre-set options (defaults) can significantly influence user behavior and create specific social dynamics, as seen with read receipts on WhatsApp versus iMessage, and Netflix's auto-playing next episodes.
Level 5: Structural Design & Logic: Discusses making fundamental architectural decisions about how an app's logic is structured to enhance elegance and scalability, such as transforming all elements into tags for easier filtering and management, as implemented in Flask and Notion.
Level 6: Product Strategy & Reframing: Highlights how a shift in perspective or the strategic application of existing technology can create immense value, like Loom reframing video for asynchronous communication to replace meetings, or Superhuman reframing email for speed and efficiency.
Level 7: Visionary Innovation: Encompasses groundbreaking, transformative ideas that change entire industries, but which require all the preceding levels to be successfully realized, exemplified by the iPhone's success compared to earlier touchscreen devices like the Sony Magic Link.