- Opinion
Stripping Back to the Song: Why RM Compare | ⚡NOW Does Less, on Purpose
When you build a mobile experience for comparative judgement, the temptation is to start with the desktop application and ask: how can we fit everything onto a smaller screen?
With RM Compare |⚡NOW, we asked a different question: what does someone need to make a useful comparison, right now?
That distinction matters as its not just on a phone, but on tablets and PCs too. To explain why, it helps to step away from software and into the recording studio.
Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin is one of the most influential producers in popular music. He co-founded Def Jam Recordings, helped shape the sound of the Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C., and went on to work with Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Adele. His career crosses hip-hop, rock, country and pop.
His collaboration with Johnny Cash offers a particularly useful example. On American Recordings, released in 1994, stripped-down production put Cash’s voice and songs at the centre. The album helped revitalise his career by bringing the strength of what was already there into focus.
“Reduce your work to the absolute essentials you can’t live without.” - Rick Rubin (The Creative Way of Being)
The lesson is not that every song needs fewer instruments. It is that every instrument should serve the song. Software deserves the same scrutiny. A feature can be useful in its own right and still distract from the task someone is trying to complete.
Every feature earns its place
Software developers have a principle called YAGNI: “You Aren’t Gonna Need It”. It means resisting the urge to build capabilities for hypothetical future requirements before they are needed. It is not an excuse to cut corners. It is a discipline for focusing on the need in front of you.
For ⚡NOW, that means asking: does this help someone make a comparison and learn from it, or are we including it simply because we can?
“Perfection is finally obtained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there’s no longer anything to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Reporting, session configuration and administrative controls all have a place. But they do not all need to sit between someone and their next judgement.
⚡NOW offers a focused route into the task: open a link or scan a QR code, capture or upload an item, compare it against a ready-made standard, and see how closely your initial estimate aligned with that standard. No account creation or session setup first.
Less preparation. More attention on the work.
More space, not more complexity
Starting with that focused experience gives us a clear principle for larger screens. Moving from a phone to a tablet or PC does not automatically change the user’s task. It changes the space available to support it. A larger screen can give the work more room to breathe. It need not bring more menus, settings or decisions.
The temptation is to treat every available pixel as an invitation to add something. We want to resist that temptation. YAGNI does not stop applying when the screen gets bigger. A capability should earn its place because the task needs it, not because the layout can accommodate it.
Our design ambition is to adapt the presentation without expanding the demands on the user. More room for the work, not more work for the user. To return to the music analogy: playing a song through bigger speakers does not mean it needs more instruments.
Less interface, not less rigour
A focused experience should not mean a simplistic approach to assessment.
⚡NOW uses ready-made standards drawn from real work across a quality range. Users can engage with those standards and receive feedback on their judgement without first managing the assessment process themselves. We are not removing the thinking behind assessment. We are keeping unnecessary demands out of this particular interaction.
The wider RM Compare platform supports broader workflows. ⚡NOW has a focused purpose: helping people engage with the work, make comparisons and reflect on their judgement.
Less is not automatically better. Removing something useful can weaken a product just as surely as adding something unnecessary. The discipline is deciding what belongs. For RM Compare ⚡NOW, that means retaining the same focus across devices. Not everything squeezed onto a smaller screen, or everything added back on a larger one.
The layout can change. The purpose should not.
Less clutter. More attention to what matters.