What is it that makes an app so much more magnetic than a website? There’s just something about it that makes you want to visit, interact and experience it time and time again. Even the most beautifully designed website doesn’t have the same draw. Your favorite site may have a stunning layout, a flawless, intuitive flow, but it’s likely missing that element that makes mobile apps irresistible: visceral feedback.

Being instinctual as opposed to the intellectual, visceral is by its very nature difficult to describe. Visceral comes from viscera, the internal organs, and so, visceral experiences are those that come from the gut. Simon Sinek in his book Start With Why, explains that visceral experiences are tied to the limbic brain where our emotions and primal behaviors originate. Because the limbic brain is completely disconnected from the language center of the neocortex, visceral...

Online, friction is that extra click to find what you’re looking for, the confusing registration flow or the slideshow that requires a new version of SliverLight to run. At the office, it’s the unnecessary meeting, time consuming paperwork or the communication breakdown that stops momentum and derails the project. No matter how minor it may seem, even the smallest point of friction can have a major impact on our overall success and happiness.

Friction is insidious. It pops up everywhere and as a result, it’s become too easy to dismiss as no big deal. After all, it’s just one more click, one tiny extra step, one insignificant form. How much can one click really hurt? The reality, however, is that all of these little extra nuisances compound quickly and create big problems.

Unchecked friction equals time and energy lost, frustration and diminishing returns. It can drive users away just...

My design company, digital-telepathy, has fortunately seen significant growth in the last year. We’ve increased revenue by nearly 300%, doubled our staff and expanded to a great new headquarters. I can attribute this recent success to running the entire organization according to a core philosophy of Betterment - our concept of generating incremental improvement to create exponential results. Everything that we do, from design to HR, is infused with Betterment.

So what is it? Simply put, Betterment is a philosophy of constantly improving. Whether ourselves, our design or our operations, there is always something we can make better. It’s not a business system, it’s a way of being. Embracing the notion that there is always room for improvement gives us freedom to innovate and push our limits. When improvement is the standard, momentum is only one of many positive results.

To make...