Joe Duck

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1. why? every little convenience has a cost, example, foxmarks, slows my life down when it wants to do its thing, or even firefox bookmarks, why the hell does the list close as soon as i click one, maybe i want to do more…. every digital pathway herds you somewhere… often, i dont want to go there, or there are hidden side-costs, a registration perhaps, that results in unwanted emails… i really want it simple, the machine is an informer, more than a computer, the feeling that i am driving, rather than being driven, is much rarer in a cool “control panel” than you might think…

   ok, luddite meeting is starting, back later

   Comment by gregory | December 23, 2007 | Reply

2. Just back from the Luddite meeting too. Nothing changed.

   I have to say, having worked in large software company environments for many years now (microsoft, symantec, etc.), my general feeling on “why” boils down to this:

   The whole “customization is good” methodology ultimately substitutes for a lack of strong functional and usable design.

   [I just ducked my head, physically, when I said that, dodging that Nerf Mod with the honed shards of an old sound card (or an exacto blade) jammed in the nose the ammo.]

   If something does what its supposed to do really, really well, the user doesn’t NEED to customize. They might want to occasionally, but to make it work, they turn it on and push play.

   I know I know, lots and lots of geek brethren disagree. But really, if the design is truly intuitive, excessively simple because it does what it does elegantly and blindingly quickly, and is rock-solid reliable, you don’t strictly _need_ to customize. The geek in me might *want to* occasionally, but for the most part, good design means I can pick up that IPod, twiddle the wheel to find the song, and press play. You don’t need 8 ways to do it to make it work, It just works.

   My wife’s computer experience is the perfect illustration of this: She looks at my Windows desktop with 80 icons (my version of desktop customization to fit my sloppy needs), and says, “OK. this one is one click? Or two? Or right click? Or left 2 clicks? Do I ever have to 3-click? Oh wait – this one is a “slow” double click? I can never remember…” Or on the husband-tech-support-line, “OK. I changed the Windows setting. Now what do I do again to really change it? And I should reboot and then check it again, because sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn’t?” Unlike her Mac, where you change the setting, and, uh, its uh, changed?

   That’s just Creepy. You should at least have a modal dialog box pop up that says your new application mixed with your security settings might jeopardize your software licenses, that we will gladly track and let you know when expire, for your own good, citizen 984938…

   Comment by metroknow | December 23, 2007 | Reply

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