> If you make it flexible, you risk getting 40% lovers and 40% haters, and 20% > people who are annoyed because it’s too flexible or too complicated. That’s a > net loss in satisfaction.
How about: 40% lovers, 40% haters, and 20% people who *are initially frustrated by the complexity, and then take a few minutes to learn how to leverage its power / flexibility. That is most definitely a net *gain*. This is the thing that is personally upsetting to me about this simplification trend in modern software, it's the idea that all users should be treated like children. There is a balance between simplicity/usability and flexibility/power to be found, and I think a lot of software these days veers way off the mark. Of course as an abstract philosophy there's always scenarios in which providing a flexible system isn't worth the frustration it will cause with its learning curve, but Xcode is a perfect example of when this is _not_ the case (IMO); Xcode users should generally be expected to be reasonably intelligent folks who are willing to learn a tool's nuances if that means it will improve their workflow / development efficiency. -Matt > On Jan 11, 2016, at 2:17 PM, Quincey Morris > <quinceymor...@rivergatesoftware.com> wrote: > > On Jan 11, 2016, at 13:06 , Lee Ann Rucker <lruc...@vmware.com> wrote: >> >> no system is going to make everyone happy, so go for the most flexible one >> if you can > > I’d like to advocate the opposite point of view: no system is going to make > everyone happy, so go for the the one that works best. > > (Yes, I understand what’s wrong with that statement.) > > My reasoning is that if you make it inflexible, you risk getting (say) 50% > lovers and 50% haters. If you make it flexible, you risk getting 40% lovers > and 40% haters, and 20% people who are annoyed because it’s too flexible or > too complicated. That’s a net loss in satisfaction. > > (Yes, I understand what’s wrong with that statement, too.) > > My point is philosophical. You’re the developer. You’re supposed to know what > works best for your app. If you haven’t decided yet, then your job isn’t done. > > (I also don’t want to restart Xcode wars, but I do actually believe that the > unified window style that arrived in Xcode 4 was an actual decision about > which worked best, made by clever people who actually thought about it. It > wasn’t — I believe — merely clueless. I also want to point out that Xcode 3 > was *hugely* criticized for its window bloat.) > > _______________________________________________ > > Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) > > Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. > Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com > > Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: > https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/mreagan2652%40gmail.com > > This email sent to mreagan2...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
