High Signal Podcasts Evidence ledger
Method
Browse
← All source episodes

Acquired / episode intelligence

Special: Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra)

12 Nov 2020 12 published claims 1 attributable person

Speakers in the public record

Claim mix

evaluation 4commitment 3belief 2recommendation 2preference 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

12 published records

01 / belief

What I would say is for folks who have listened to this, maybe they're excited to try Superhuman or they have an email problem and they really wish that they could through their inbox twice as fast as before—sustainably hit inbox zero, head to superhuman.

“What I would say is for folks who have listened to this, maybe they're excited to try Superhuman or they have an email problem and they really wish that they could through their inbox twice as fast as before—sustainably hit inbox zero, head to superhuman.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

02 / belief

What you want your players to feel, what is the emotional path for them to get there, and how does your software—your business product, if that's what you're building—take them along the path? That's why one of the key principles that we think about at Superhuman isn't just goals, it isn't just toys, it isn't just flow, but it's also emotions.

“What you want your players to feel, what is the emotional path for them to get there, and how does your software—your business product, if that's what you're building—take them along the path? That's why one of the key principles that we think about at Superhuman isn't just goals, it isn't just toys, it isn't just flow, but it's also emotions.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

03 / commitment

We dove into the Chrome source code, reverse-engineered the font layout engine, and then built our own layout framework actually entirely in CSS because we wanted this thing to be super fast as well.

“We dove into the Chrome source code, reverse-engineered the font layout engine, and then built our own layout framework actually entirely in CSS because we wanted this thing to be super fast as well.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

06 / evaluation

That's the problem with rewards, they massively undermine intrinsic motivation. That's why gamification does not work, and when gamification does work, it is because the underlying experience was already a game.

“That's the problem with rewards, they massively undermine intrinsic motivation. That's why gamification does not work, and when gamification does work, it is because the underlying experience was already a game.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

09 / recommendation

We actually use the emotion wheel by The Junto Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership because this emotion wheel has all of the nuance that a game designer needs in order to actually practice emotional design.

“We actually use the emotion wheel by The Junto Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership because this emotion wheel has all of the nuance that a game designer needs in order to actually practice emotional design.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

10 / evaluation

Let's take the things that we take for granted—hundred milliseconds response times, instantaneous search, command palette, keyboard shortcuts, beautiful layouts, typography as a first-class citizen, design that reports separately and is a thing unto itself.

“Let's take the things that we take for granted—hundred milliseconds response times, instantaneous search, command palette, keyboard shortcuts, beautiful layouts, typography as a first-class citizen, design that reports separately and is a thing unto itself.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired

11 / preference

A speed where you stop thinking in words, because words are too slow because by the time you've had that thought, you're already around the corner and through the next valley.

“A speed where you stop thinking in words, because words are too slow because by the time you've had that thought, you're already around the corner and through the next valley.”
Speaker
Rahul Vohra
Publisher
Acquired
Search evidence