Why I Like This: Wordle

My shift into Product has not just made an impact on my career. It has changed the way I see the world. These days every time I experience a product that I feel has done its job successfully, I have found myself asking: “why do I like this?” Why does this specific product stand out to me? What is the problem that it solves? And just what is it about the way it solves that problem that has made it so endearing?

As such, I’m going to write a little mini-series of blogs that I call “Why I Like This”, or WILT if you like. Actually, no. Not WILT. Don’t call it WILT.

None of these opinions will be paid, they will just be me shouting into the ether in praise of products!

So, here we go with my first edition!

The Problem

I had a lot of time to kill post-Christmas, and I wanted a fun little distraction to keep my brain from turning into a smooth mush.

The Product That Solved It

Wordle, the guess-a-word app that has been winning hearts and minds at an astonishing rate since late last year.

Why I Like This

• It’s elegant. Wordle didn’t require me to create an account. It’s never sent me an e-mail. There are no interstitial ads or bonus turns or gems. You go to the site, you play for about five minutes, you go about your day. The social aspect is elegant as well. There’s a reason you’re seeing memes about the little emoji squares all over the place: they’ve made it very easy to share, no gimmicks, everyone gets essentially the same experience. That has helped make it semi-ubiquitous very quickly.
• It’s fun. Obviously, any successful game has to be fun, and Wordle is fun! Word games are always popular, and limiting the number of spaces means that it’s never overly difficult. We’ve played about 20–30 games so far and we’ve never yet faced defeat, meaning it’s a pleasant little daily dopamine hit.
• It’s not time-consuming. There’s something I really like about limits being placed on things. For example, I never like when an entire series of a show launches on the same day. I like the anticipation that an episode-a-week brings, and Wordle has this same effect on me. I can’t end up wasting hours playing the thing, it’s just a quick little teaser, with no possibility of making me say “oh just one more” and missing my station.

So, there we are. For me, Wordle has been elegant and fun, without being time-consuming. It’s a product I like, and I look forward to sharing more of these with you in the coming weeks.