Can You Put Lipstick on a Path?

Posted by schneidermike on Thursday, December 1, 2011 · View Comments 

red is love

The new Path user interface is gorgeous. Dave Morin’s team has come up with a user experience that will change the way that people think about application design.  Path abandons the standard bottom toolbar that most consumer behavior oriented applications have for 2 buttons in the sticky header and a red plus sign that looms on the bottom left hand of the screen. Clicking the plus sign reveals a swiss army knife that allows you to add a new journal entry starting with a photo, a person, location, song, thought or your lucidity state. The last of which would be even cooler if it was integrated with life stats hardware like the Fitbit or Jawbone Up.

the plus sign fans geisha-style to show post options

The new user interface is gorgeous. It is UX pr0n and this version of Path will change or at least challenge the way that every app designer thinks about every consumer app they design moving forward. One of our best designers, Charlie Guerrero picked it up for the first time this morning and was blown away by how fluid and responsive the app is for everything that is going on.

chief ninjas everywhere are intrigued

The application is clearly designed after the Facebook timeline. They have adopted the cover concept as well as the entire timeline concept. What Path does better than any other application is that it tells you who has seen your post. That is really quite bold.

boldly showing exactly who sees your content

Here is the problem. It is still just Path. While I think that the new design pattern will inspire a lot of curiosity, I see more applications adopting this style of design than people actually making Path part of their daily routine. In other words, in spite of the fact that it can post to Facebook, twitter and foursquare it’s not going to replace Facebook mobile unless Facebook acquires Path and decides to replace their mobile experience with Path. Path is decidedly cooler, but people will reject it because 700 million of their closest friends are on Facebook and this is essentially an alternative.  The adoption of many of Facebook timeline’s design patterns coupled by the fact that founder Dave Morin is ex-Facebook and still has strong relationships could be an indication of an exit strategy. Time will tell.

looking a lot like Facebook timeline

Another thought though: It knows where you are, who you are with and it knows if you are sleeping and knows if you’re awake. If they just add an indicator for whether you are bad or good they could have a suitor at the North Pole.

 

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  • Nice quick draw post - you make solid points especially since you were just opening the new Path less than 12 hours ago. Beauty is more than skin deep though, Schneidermike. 

    Lest you forget, Path is built as a sustainable social network:http://rallythecause.com/2010/...

    Or as Path says:Path was designed with the people you love, your close friends and family, in mind. Share in a trusted, intimate, environment like the dinner table at home.

    Your lipstick and pig metaphor is off. I think an automotive metaphor is more apt. They've redesigned the body of a car that's built on a next-gen drivetrain and propulsion system designed for human nature, not technology limitations.  It looks and rides beautifully now.

    Now, the UI elegance matches the heart of Path. I want to share different things with different people. Path gives me the ability to do so with these concepts baked into the DNA, not reverse engineered like Facebook.  

    Path meets a major need I have: an elegant mobile app that makes it easy for me to share with a select group of people what's happening in my life and, when desired, with wider networks of people.

    Take some time to dig a little deeper into the values and philosophy of Path by visiting their About page (https://www.path.com/about) and you'll also gain a better appreciation for the other strategic advantages Path has:
    + Mobile-centric
    + Privacy as default - forever
    + Ability to push out to three wider networks when desired (this will spur adoption, a la Instragram, etc.)
    + Ability to share most prevalent social content (photos, videos, location, music & thoughts)
    + See who's "listening", not just commenting

    These two are what I think gives Path a major advantage:

    "Smart -Path should learn about you as time goes on. It should help you see interesting patterns in your life, and the lives of your loved ones. It should learn to write itself, and require less effort from you over time."

    "Automatic - Path learns about you and automatically posts when you go to a different neighborhood or city. More posts in your Path, without your effort."

    Please hear my cry, oh Internet Gods, make it easy for me to share my life without having to always be documenting it!  I want to be in the movie, not have to direct and edit it, too.

    Now, I wish, as Anne Mai Bertelsen (@annemai) said on Twitter that these social networks would begin to market themselves like housing developers market their communities - as ecosystems that meet human needs.
  • I see what you did there. You tried to make it look like I haven't thought through my post by calling it "quick draw" and you've reminded me about your (I'm not going to call it dated because that would be doing what you just did) post which I read at least three times and tweeted / Facebooked and G+ed to anyone and everyone who would listen. 

    I did read the (new) about page. I do know their philosophy and as you well know, I was a Path power user for a while and reached out to Dave Morin on several occasions (even offered to buy him lunch, but our schedules didn't match up) to find out where he's going with this. They used to use Dunbar's number to explain why they are doing what they are doing and guess what- People don't care about the sustainable, private social network. That's why everyone is on Facebook and twitter. They just want Facebook to tweak their settings. It's like pulling teeth to get the people I truly love like Jaye, Mom, Dad, Dan, Matt, Amy, Caitlin and Grandma on Path. Is your wife on Path? 

    Our Chief Ninja friend is right. I will take it a step further - even the old UX was gorgeous, the video with Sarah Whatsherface was AWESOME but people are too busy using the Facebook and the twitter and the instagram and everything else out there to inject Path into their lives to keep a few loved ones informed about stuff they are probably already informing them about on Facebook and twitter. 

    NOW - to my point which is that this is INCREDIBLY HOT and that it's going to raise a lot of eyebrows and change the way we design apps. The question is this: which happens first? Facebook copies this design or they buy Path (theory: which is designed to be more private FOR A REASON - because Dave was smart enough to know that Facebook would falter on privacy and that Zuck wouldn't listen to him so he goes out and gets money to show them how it's done.) What do you think?
  • Interesting conversation gentlemen. Thanks for the feedback.
  • Great post. Also, the ending to this post just made my day. I'm a Hanukkah person myself, but if Path means extra presents from a jolly red-suited home-invasion expert, then count me in.
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