There’s been a horrible tendency in the last couple years for companies to launch products that have been designed with content from an idealized world. You know exactly what I’m talking about: Facebook Paper, Google Photos, iCloud – all services that have launched with gorgeous, stunning photos of supermodel-caliber people in dream locations.

The problem is that this fundamentally ignores how your product is going to be used by real people in real situations. You end up making choices about your user interface and your product in general that don’t reflect the truth on the ground. Image crops that make sense when every photo has been taken by a professional photographer during the golden hour don’t look great when they’re taken by a person with shaky hands on a three year old phone’s front camera. Continue reading →