Why does it have to be this hard?

I’ve probably asked that question more times than I can count.

I’m dyslexic, and that has shaped the way I learn, the way I gather information, and eventually the way I think about technology. Information can be sitting right in front of me and still not be accessible in a way that works for me.

My mother is a published author. I’ve never read her book.

Sorry, Mom.

That may explain Freedom Interactive Print better than any technology diagram ever could.

I’ve actually spent most of my career thinking about communication. My first career was in broadcasting, where I started as a radio personality and eventually became a VP of Programming. Radio taught me a lot about how people receive information, what gets their attention, and how important it is to communicate in a way that connects with the person on the other end.

Years later, when I started this venture, I found myself thinking about the same problem from a completely different direction.

Print gives us information. Sometimes a lot of information. But having information in front of you and being able to easily access, understand, and use it are not always the same thing.

That was certainly true for me.

I might want someone to explain something. I might want to ask a question. I might understand it better if I could watch it being demonstrated. Sometimes I simply need another way into the information.

And I kept coming back to the same question:

Why does it have to be this hard?

Why does everything someone needs to know have to fit on the page? Why should someone have to search through a website, read a manual, dig through FAQs, or figure out the right words to type into a search box just to get an answer?

Eventually that question led to another one:

What if there were a better way?

What if the printed piece didn’t have to contain the entire conversation? What if it could simply be the beginning of one?

A person could scan something and watch a video, ask a question, meet an intelligent avatar, see a demonstration, explore something in 3D, receive information relevant to them, or take whatever next step made sense.

The technology could change depending on what the person needed.

That became Freedom Interactive Print.

I wasn’t trying to make print more complicated. I was trying to make information easier to access.

And the more we built, the more I realized the idea was bigger than print.

Websites, apps, business systems, training tools, and other technology often create the same problem. We give people too much information and then make them figure out where the useful part is hiding.

I think we can do better than that.

Technology should adapt to people. Not the other way around.

That belief is at the center of Freedom Interactive Print and Freedom ICX. We use technology to make information easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to act on.

And we’re still asking the questions that got us here.

Why does it have to be this hard?

What if there were a better way?

Those questions have taken us into some interesting places.

They’ve also somehow resulted in a curious raccoon living in a dumpster with an unhealthy obsession with chicken wings.

We’re still working through that one. 🦝