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Why Software Sucks, And Can Something Be Done About It?
CPNABEND tipped us to a story carried on the Fox News site, pointing out that a lot of programmers don't understand their users. David Platt, author of the new book 'Why Software Sucks ... And What You Can Do About It', looks at the end user experience with end user eyes. While technically inclined individuals tend to want control, Platt argues, most people just want something that works. On the other hand, the article also cites David Thomas, executive director of the Software & Information Industry Association. His opinion: Users don't know what they want. From the article: "'You don't want your customers to design your product,' he said. 'They're really bad at it.' As more and more software becomes Internet-based, he said, companies can more easily monitor their users' experiences and improve their programs with frequent updates. They have a financial incentive to do so, since more consumer traffic results in higher subscription or advertising revenues." Where does your opinion lay? Should software 'just work', or are users too lazy?
Okay, so you're being sarcastic, but you're also missing the point. A better analogy would be somebody who wants to listen to music and is given a guitar rather than a radio. Sure, if they put in the time and effort, they could eventually learn to play the guitar and possibly even make better music than what they could find on the radio but it's not really a reasonable answer to the person's need.
I'm just sayin'.
This post couldn't have come at a more precipitous time. I work for an educational facility which uses a web-based "business portal" for all of our HR, Payroll, Purchasing, and Accounting functions. At this very moment, I am (pretending to be) entering data into this system. There are (on a guess) 100 fields that need to be filled. About 85 of them will always have the exact same data. Another 12 will be identical for every entry from the same order. Only 3 are unique--and one of those is the auto-increment primary key. It requires 3 mintues and 5 different forms to enter all this information. And all but 2 fields could automatically be captured by the system and applied to the form (right now, we're just reading it from one form and typing it by hand into another form). Now, this is a program that's supposed to improve the efficiency of the businesses that use it, however, it's laid out in ways that actively hamper the effective use of the software. This is a perfect example of a situation in which you absolutely want the users telling the programmers how to do things--not how to build the code, but how to design an interface that allows for smooth, efficient use of the tool. I run into the same situation in so many programs, and it really frustrates me. I think one of the reasons that Apple has become so successful in the various niche markets is because they put so much emphasis on creating a smooth interface between the users and the code. Most users don't care about the code. They care about how easy it is to accomplish what they want to accomplish. There's no reason that a program can't both be properly-coded and "just work". The two are not incompatible.