It doesn’t matter whether you are creating an app, a story, or any other experience. In order to make it as meaningful as possible, you need to ask this question about each element along the way:

Does it add to the experience, or does it distract?

Here’s why. It’s easy to get lost in the process of creating. We find ourselves rationalizing why something needs to be included. This is how experiences end up feeling bloated or simply fall flat.

The remedy is to ask the question with each element. Is it simplistic? Absolutely. That’s the point. We need to cut through all the rationalizing and get to whether the element has value or not.

Does it add or does it distract? It’s a question that will make everything we do stronger.