[IxDA Discuss] can we make it to easy?

[Jared M. Spool]

On May 2, 2008, at 6:26 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote:

>> 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.
>
> I know of no one who has ever said that or thinks like that. Further,
> I can certainly tell you that no one on the Photoshop team ever
> thought along those lines.

Interestingly, I have met product developers who did say that was  
their objective, years ago. They were concerned that their customers,  
all craftspeople who were being threatened by a commoditization of  
their skills, would reject software that didn't have a learning curve  
to it.

Interestingly, the inevitable simplified software came about and, sure  
enough, the crafts went mostly obsolete. In all the cases I'm aware  
of, the developers are no longer in business.

Complexity takes two forms: Tool complexity and domain complexity.  
Tool complexity can (and is often) rendered simpler through advances  
in interfaces. Often it's through the elimination of excessive  
features and options, to core functionality. While this does reduce  
the options available to the user, the reduction is often in the form  
of fringe functionality.

Domain complexity is more difficult. Here is where serious process re- 
engineering needs to take place. The going-back-to-the-blackboard-and- 
rethinking-the-core-processes kind-of approach.

Reducing tool complexity does open the user to faster productivity,  
but often still requires similar skill levels for the core skill. (A  
simpler drawing tool doesn't help you draw any better, only more  
efficiently.)

Reducing domain complexity brings new capabilities to users who  
previously couldn't master the skills. Think WYSIWYG database tools  
(ala Access or Filemaker) replacing the previous code-based generation  
(ala DBase or IDMS). Think desktop publishing replacing previous  
typesetting activities.

Of course, bringing capabilities to people without the formal  
skillsets results a flurry of crude activity, such as the ransom-note  
style publishing we saw in the early '80s. However, this flurry often  
seems to die down once people realize that it does matter what you do.  
Good examples and guidance such as templates help with this.

I think it's unlikely you can make something too easy. However,  
sometimes making it easier requires serious advances in the design  
approaches.

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
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