Programmers to blame for hard-to-use software - Yahoo! News
Programmers to blame for hard-to-use software - Yahoo! News
Uh, buy a Mac? Doesn’t solve all the beefs of this article, but I long ago stopped worrying about configurations and advanced options (unless I want them) and wondering where things are in the menus and, for the most part, software that sucks. Apple just works (most of the time).
And enough of the stupid car comparisons, they are two completely different beasts. Every critic of software loves to trot out this old mantra, as if it even passes the smell test. Seriously, when was the last time your car changed it’s own oil or rotated it’s tires, much less told you that your brakes are worn or your belts need changing? Nope, it never has, instead you have to rely on the Valvoline guy to place a stupid little sticker in your window in hopes that you will see it in the next 3000 miles or read the manual or remember that your Dad told you to change the oil every 3,00 to 5,000 miles. Do you honestly expect me to believe that we should all be in awe of the simplicity of a car and how well made they are and how easy to use they are? Oh, by the way, the car’s been around for a good 40 more years. Additionally, the large majority of the car is based on the principles of physics. Software, on the other hand, is more art than science, even if it is taught by Harvard Computer Science professors. Did I mention that a car is possibly one of the worst “investments” one can make? Seriously, the value of your car drops by ~30% the minute you drive it off the lot? Why is that? Chances are that car will require major repairs within 3 years, despite the fact that you just paid $25,000 plus for it. So give me a break with the car/software comparison. It doesn’t hold water.
I do, however, totally agree with Mr. Platt about useless pop-up boxes, etc. but I also find that most people don’t even bother to try and understand them. That “Save Changes” popup boxes were put in because people either would forget to save or the machine would automatically save and they didn’t want to save. I for one like the option of being able to turn off the confirmation box in future use (which is becoming more prevalent.) As for the “OK” button problem, I wonder what the message said? Did it say why it failed? Often times, that message will give you enough information to go do a web search. Would you rather it just failed silently? I suppose it could be improved by having a “Search Customer Support” button that launched a web browser and automatically searched the customer support using the error message.
OK, I admit, I am a programmer (if you haven’t figured that out yet) and I am a bit defensive. I will begin my 12 step program as soon as I finish this post. And I do admit us programmers struggle with making things clear for end users, but software isn’t always easy to write and Mr. Platt of all people should know that, especially when it is something that has never been done before. Many programs have thousands of variables (most people have a hard time managing more than 7 active thoughts at one time, so I have read), millions of lines of code, not to mention the interactions with other programs, the Operating System, storage devices, etc. Additionally, not all programmers are created equal. Many right hard to read code, using their own formatting styles, don’t test thoroughly, etc. Additionally, I don’t know how many Computer Science graduates I have worked with who day in day out don’t think about algorithms, testing, performance, etc. and how they relate to the real world. They often just want to get their code working to meet some deadline and don’t think about the bigger picture. The fact is most schools simply don’t teach real world programming and thus we get programs that “suck”, nor do they teach students to think about the “why” of programming. Perhaps Mr. Platt should do a better job at his other profession, i.e. teaching computer science, so he wouldn’t have to write headline grabbing books ripping the very industry he is supposedly training.
And by the way, I for one, like to limit my Starbucks search to within a small radius. The fact is, there are probably so many Starbucks within 5 miles of any given metro area that removing that option would result in 50+ hits, filling up the map, which, of course, would also warrant a “sucks” comment from Mr. Platt. Can’t win for trying… Which would you have, Mr. Platt, the option to control your results, or some “sucky” programmer doing it for you? As a user, I would rather have an intelligent default setting with the option of overriding it, exactly like Starbucks does.
