Every year our software can do more and more. We add more features, modules and functionality. It's great to be able to do more and to offer more ways to support our clients. But there can be a downside too. With more features there is more complexity. We now offer training and have help files. These weren't necessary when we were simply hosting lists of files.
There's a lot to be said for simplicity. In some cases, an improvement can be made by reducing functionality. Read what Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter and Blogger has to say about adding constraints as a way of making tools more useful. The popularity of this tool is in how little you can do!
Web 2.0 Summit: Twitter Founder Evan Williams Preaches Added Constraints October 20, 2007
Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter and Blogger, believes that developers should be adding more constraints to applications, ...
Traditionally, if you think about the development of desktop software, every new version has new menus and buttons. It feels great because you could do more and more stuff! But pretty soon, the interface becomes so complex that you can't find anything. Extra features impair the user's experience and performance.
In this context a better software has fewer features. I think Google has lead the charge here. Everything they provide is simple and clean and very easy to use. If you consider other tools like Skype, Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook the common element is a simple uncluttered and well thought out interface.
Our goal in development should be to get rid of the help file. Put a great deal of thought and design into the application and give it a lot of power in the back end, but keep the interface as minimal as possible.
0 comments:
Post a Comment