isnt this another way of saying that software needs to be more task focused instead of option focused ? Users want to get stuff done with the least hassle and fuss. No Clippy, no sea of menus/tabs and stuff thrust as you. if it can learn what things you do most and configure itself for those tasks all the better. If I need to do something else then please by all means bring on the optical assualt so that I know what I have to choose from. and for gods’ sake a reset button to turn back on the dialogs. Nothing more frustrating than clicking the “dont show this dialog again” and having no way to get it back in case you need it.
I completely agree, and this is one of the main principals I’ve built my software company on.
One thing that’s helped us do this is narrowing our focus to a single vertical target market. Once you have this smaller target of users, you can make the menu perfect for that group of customers.
After a while you do start to attract customers that want you to add to your menu, and sometimes you have to realize that they a href="http://www.freshview.com/thoughts/2007/08/someone_elses_customers.html"aren’t the right match/a.