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."
Thread beginning with comment 184542
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[6]: Difference between "choice" and "defaults"
by CowMan on Wed 22nd Nov 2006 23:35
in reply to "RE[5]: Difference between "choice" and "defaults""
Member since:2006-09-26
Sure it could, it's all in the packaging. Obviously there is some truths in what the article says, some level of his proposed simplications would be great.
The Linux community has this figured out in principle. Most distro's default to Gnome or KDE, but for those of use who prefer otherwise there's a ton of WM's from ratposion to enlightment, all kinds of applets & whatnot, etc. - the choices don't necissarily have to be appearant to the [new] user, so long as their easy enough to do & the features still exist.
One of the nice things of a CLI, you can add as many programs as you want, it hardly clutters the environment nor interferes with it's function.
Member since:
2006-01-25
Well i know some pubs who have more than 400+ different kind of beers.It's something different.The place is allways crowded in the weekend.I don't know wether that's due to the large variety of different beers but still it doesn't shock them either.
There is a difference between the beer example you give and the one about the turkey sandwich. Restuarants _make_ turkey sandwiches, pubs dont make beer - they buy it from companies that do. Now name a company that actually makes 400 different kinds of beer... Pubs are retailers, not producers.
Also, pubs generally work on the principle that they have "anything" you might want. If you think about from the point of view of the customer the pub is in fact not only limiting the burdon of choice, they are essentially eliminating it. The customer knows if they ask for _any_ kind of beer, the pub will have it. There is no complicated interface, and there is probably only like 3 price categories (domestic, import, really explensive) so there is pretty much no reason to even display a beer list.
What if when you ordered your beer the bartender said "sure, you can order, but first you MUST physically point at your beer from our list - even if you already know what you want." That wouldnt fly would it? That is what UI designers have to tangle with.
Unfortunately the "we have anything you want" approach doesnt work in the software world yet...
Edited 2006-11-22 20:12