Linus Torvalds wrote:
The fact is, developers don't know what their users are going to need.
That's a very fundamental issue in any software engineering. The other,
almost as fundamental issue, is that asking users is usually not very
productive either, because (a) different users will give you different
answers and (b) users often don't even know.
So when you ask "which flexibilities do you consider important", you're
pretty much BY DEFINITION asking for something senseless. It's akin to
asking how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
But the fact that users and developers don't know does NOT mean that
customization is bad. Quite the reverse. It means that defaults make
sense, but since you don't know what they'll be doing, you should always
strive to have ways to let _them_ make the choice when they have some
reason the default doesn't agree with them.
Those users may not know before-hand (which is why asking them is
pointless), but people actually _like_ twiddling around, changing fonts
and personalizing their machine. It may not be "productive", but it sure
as hell is user-friendly.
Sorry if I interrupt here but IMO this is a very fundamental concept
developers usually just don't give enough thinking. It is important to
recognize that others may think completely different. Unfortunately I
also don't know an simple solution how this can be done better. Maybe a
developer should first assume he has done something wrong if a user asks
a question.
I also like the simple configuration which just does everything right
but I also get annoyed if I can't do what I want. So more or less
important is almost impossible to decide since anybody defines it
different. If you have to decide between more important or less, still
allow everything but hide the "less" important through an additional
level of indirection. So the one who wants control of everything can
while the other doesn't see it.
O. Wyss
--
Application guidelines: http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyoguide/
Cross-platform Editor: http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyoeditor/
Cross-platform Filemanager http://freshmeat.net/projects/wyofiler/
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