Comments on: Software design: Simple is beautiful

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:07:56 +0000

Haha, I guess that’s what happens when I don’t RTFA (or video)
-1 Redundant

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:04:28 +0000

@Adam, Clayton – in the video David addressed the problem as the “SUV syndrome” – people having a need to surround themselves with features they don’t need, but might use in the distant future (probably no sooner than the next version of the software will come out).

I think the important point here is to make sure that your core features work darn well, before developing a truck-full of “extras” to sell the above mentioned core features.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:05:16 +0000

@Clayton, You add those features to give those 99% of users a feeling that they are purchasing a better product than what they had before. And to give 1% of users the chance to make older versions of Office obsolete.
I was, however, talking general terms. I don’t think Office should be a prime example, simply because the vast majority of people only use it for word processing, and those “features” are just excuses to sell a new version.

By: Clayton

Clayton — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:27:26 +0000

@Adam, 99% of the users out there only bought Microsoft Office to do simple word processing. They don’t give a damn about any of the other crap that’s in there. So why add it in?

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 04:55:58 +0000

I don’t think you are forced to leave features out to make the user interface better. I think you can simply allow the basic user access to basic features, while allowing those in-the-know access to all the features of the program.
I think that’s why the “Settings’ dialog boxes frequently have multiple tabs in them, simply because of the number of features. And really, that’s the way to go. Hide features that the user doesn’t normally access, but still could come in handy.

By: Clayton

Clayton — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:04:55 +0000

I agree one hundred percent. I don’t like trying to use software that is overly complicated or messy. Just to test how much worse Office got in the 2003 edition (which I have) I did the same thing you did, and mine turned out even worse. Clean, Simple, Functional. These are the things I look for when I look at software.