Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Make Things For An Audience of One

When we’re creating things, it’s normal to start worrying about how our audience will react. All those different people, with different aesthetics! Some of them are gonna love this part of what you’re doing, but hate this other part. Worrying about this can lead you into a rathole of self-censorship, where you try to satisfy everyone and wind up satisfying no one.

Wardle was making his game for just one person. When you’re in a mental dialogue with a single person, your creative decisions are sharpened.