Web Based Applications

Daring Fireball: The Location Field Is the New Command Line

The Location Field Is the New Command Line
Tuesday, 22 Jun 2004

When you publish your opinions on a regular basis, it’s hard to resist the urge to gloat after you’ve been proven correct. (For example, I’ll be I-told-you-so-ing with regard to the iPod mini for the next couple of years.)

This is an excellant article by John Gruber, I would lke to add my thoughts to it.

The more I watch my lawyer working with a computer the more I realize how segmented computers are.

On one hand you have a majority of users who see computers like they see their dishwashers: A tool with a few benefits.

On the other hand you have a minority of people that really love computers. I think that the people who build software fall into the second group.

The problem arises in that the people who build the software misunderstand the the group who use the software.

I would bet that a very high percentage (above 75%, probably) of the features in the applications are never used. In my own experience with supporting the users of programs such as Outlook, Excel, Word, SAP, etc. these programs are full of nice little features to make jobs really easy, but 80% of my co-employees (definitely a computer literate bunch) don’t care at all. Of course, there are one or two who really dig in and learn what they can, but the rest just fight with the program itself.

Match that against the 100% of my colleagues who use the web for email and browsing. I think that is where the power of the web is. It is really a chance to take a step back and give users something that works really well all the time (almost all time anyway) and is extremely easy.

In the end the web helps everyone to when, users get programs that are reliable and simple, programmers can focus on a small set of routines.