Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Tue 21st Nov 2006 18:05 UTC
In this article Joel talks about the number of choices in applications. "This highlights a style of software design shared by Microsoft and the open source movement, in both cases driven by a desire for consensus and for "Making Everybody Happy," but it's based on the misconceived notion that lots of choices make people happy, which we really need to rethink."
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Recently I tried to use a printer (Epson RX520 in case you're wondering). It wasn't supported by default in OS X so I had to download the driver.
Epsons driver interfaces are usually pretty good, the interfaces are fairly simple and more complex options are there if you need them.
If you want to print a photo, you drop in some photo paper, select "photo paper" then press print, it will usually give you a very respectable result.
This driver on the other hand looks like a quick hack, it gives you a whole pile of random options and you're left scratching your head. Any attempts at printing so far have failed utterly.
The interface really is that bad it makes the printer completely useless for printing photos. Thankfully the driver on the PC is rather better and it produces fine pics, I've given up printing from OS X though.
I may be able to get the perfect image out of this driver but I really don't have the inclination (or paper or ink for that matter) to sit around for hours working out how to get it.
That's the impact too much complexity in an interface can have.