Conference Presentation, Keynote
Superhuman's Founder on How to Move Beyond Gamification
- Superhuman users are projected to process inbox items twice as fast, reply to important emails sooner, and achieve inbox zero for the first time in years.
- The platform intends to onboard new users via one-to-one 30-minute video calls to teach faster workflows and shortcuts designed to eliminate mouse usage.
- Users currently far from inbox zero will have their inboxes reset to make the goal of achieving zero more achievable.
- Gamification will be implemented by designing the underlying experience as a game rather than applying superficial elements like points or badges.
- Product design will leverage psychology, mathematics, interaction design, and storytelling to evoke emotions such as hope, optimism, pride, love, surprise, and awe.
- Visual rewards for achieving inbox zero will include stunning imagery, serene scenes, and content intended to evoke sentimentality and a sense of awe.
- Robust control mechanisms will be introduced to prevent errors, such as pipelines ensuring typed names like "Conrad" never result in emails sent to wrong recipients.
- The time auto-completer feature will allow playful exploration of gibberish inputs while automatically handling complex tasks like time zone math.
- The "snooze to never" function will be available to give users the ability to indefinitely defer emails they may no longer want.
- The user experience will be structured around flow state principles, requiring users to know what to do next, how to do it, remain free from distractions, receive immediate feedback, and maintain a balance between challenge and skill.
- Interface constraints will limit users to viewing one conversation at a time and will immediately display the next email upon archiving to remove decision-making.
- Difficulty levels will dynamically adjust; if tasks are not challenging or users are highly skilled, the system will increase the challenge level.
- The Command feature (Command-K) will execute tasks while simultaneously teaching the corresponding shortcut for future use.
- Users will be assigned the specific challenge of hitting inbox zero without ever touching the mouse.
- The product strategy may intentionally make certain aspects of the interface harder to use to better balance perceived skill and challenge, thereby fostering intrinsic motivation.