[IxDA Discuss] can we make it to easy?

[Jeff Garbers]

On May 2, 2008, at 8:23 AM, mark schraad wrote:
> I found my self wondering if, for professional tools, there is  
> greater adoption, product loyalty and stickiness in leaving a  
> certain amount of difficulty in the UI? The thinking goes... if the  
> process is to easy, then everyone can do it and it erodes my (the  
> professional user's) value in the marketplace.

Maybe everyone can do it, but they can't all do it well!  The  
emergence of easier-to-use "prosumer" cameras certainly hasn't reduced  
the need for professional photographers, and I'd have to imagine that  
there are far more graphic designers working today than in the years  
before desktop publishing and Photoshop.

Certainly, given easy tools offering "professional" functionality, you  
might find that some part of the market no longer needs professional  
help. If all Fred needs is a little Web site for his homeowners'  
association, he can probably get that done himself with iWeb or  
RapidWeaver -- either of which produce what could pass for  
"professional" work -- and he won't be contacting a Web design firm.   
But as the market expands, competitive pressure gives us richer and  
more complex tools as well as simpler and easier ones.  There will  
always be demand for experts who can do remarkable and beautiful  
things with advanced tools. I take plenty of family snapshots, but we  
still go to the professional photographer every year for the Christmas  
card picture.

Intentionally leaving things harder doesn't seem to be a viable  
strategy in a free market -- the next guy will take advantage of that  
weakness.

The challenge should be in using the tool *well*, not in using it *at  
all*.