Simplicity
Posted on November 22, 2006
I don’t like Joel latest rant. People that think like that take good stuff and simplify it in a quest to satisfy every idiot. They remove “advanced” options from applications, produce one button mouses and make stuff that only idiots are willing to use.
Look what happened to GNOME when they decided to make it accessible to the average user. In new GNOME the most you can do is change the theme and wallpaper. In the old GNOME you could change WM if you wanted to.
I am not against simplicity and elegance, I enjoy it, I don’t like options panel in Word, but all those options there are there because somebody needs them, and to remove them would be to surrender to marketing.
Advanced stuff is there because stuff we use is complex. Better design should be used to hide rarely used items not to remove them.
Should we avoid keyboard short-cuts because they duplicate menu items and are not obvious?
Should we make one official way to close the window?
I can make a big list, but my answer is “no”, because this leads to a small box with a red-button with label “Make me happy”. No actually without the label, just button. Excellent design… for people with below average IQ.
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I love that line: “They remove “advanced” options from applications, produce one button mouses and make stuff that only idiots are willing to use.”
This is so true.