I was motivated recently to pick up a book (actually it was handed to me by The Boss so naturally I started turning pages) titled ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ written by software developer Steve Krug. Even though the book is about a common sense approach to web design, it occurred to me the lessons in this book can also be applied to other processes besides web site design.

Krug suggests web designers sometimes let their design innovation overtake and overwhelm how sites function. and they can be too innovative with their designs while forgetting about how the site functions. He emphasizes that you should change up your web page design only if the new product is:

A) changes are self-explanatory and do not require a learning curve.

B) changes add so much value that it’s worth a small learning curve.

From my time here at EventIQ, I think this philosophy also applies to the registration and ticket sales process. Certainly there’s many different methods for selling tickets and registering people for big events, but I believe InviteRight, our flagship software product, is worth investing a bit of time to learn because it adds immense value to the process of getting people to your event.

Changing Your Ways

But I’ve learned that some people cling to their processes like Linus does to his blanket. We tend to stick to things that work and seldom look for a better way, Krug says, especially when you cannot see the value of making a change. Why bother investing the time in climbing the learning curve when you are unsure of what the outcome will be?

There’s lots of reasons not to change, but I would hope that event organizers would be open to change. That means recognizing when there is value in change and suppressing the impulse to just stay the course. When it comes to events why continue to muddle through a process which is more time consuming and by extension more expensive?  The professional event planners tell us that they have enough to do in their day with ludicrous deadlines, flocks of customers and committee members  with conflicting needs and interests, etc.; a great reason to look for better ways to streamline their day.

Try It (for free)

I get that people are naturally skeptical, but I take to heart the one comment I hear time after time when doing a demonstration:  “Wow.”  And I love sharing Wows. I could write a book about all the steps involved in a manual process for selling tickets to a graduation banquet and how your time can be better used. Instead I would rather you see for yourself how InviteRight can improve your process; go to our website where you can experiment and test out the features with InviteRight for free.  Yes, you will receive a follow up email, but, no you won’t be inundated by phone calls or emails afterward.  But I love talking, so feel free to email me too!