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Hallelujah! Maybe this will put a dent in the current dumbification trend of all apps/UIs etc. that's probably due to 'designing for the lowest common denominat

by nnq 7y ago

Hallelujah! Maybe this will put a dent in the current dumbification trend of all apps/UIs etc. that's probably due to 'designing for the lowest common denominator'. Hint: any app/tool/etc. that's "designed for the average user", will only help its user be(come) average and below average! Now try imagining selling a product with the slogan "XYZ - Helping you stay mediocre, and even drop below the average! Use us every day, keep greatness away! ...if you're doing data-driven-product-design targeting the "average user", you're building just such a product!

gtirloni 7y ago
That was my initial gut feeling as well but high-expectation doesn't necessarily mean "more features" or "more customization". It could mean "simply works without much trouble" and then the dumbification trend fits perfectly.
- vinceguidry 7y ago
  The article was pretty specific about what it meant. She meant 1) someone who benefited from the solution 2) already had a hacked-together solution, and 3) had other people looking up to them in their field.
ako 7y ago
You shouldn’t market it as mediocre, but data will correctly show most customers are best served by mediocre products: most people need a mediocre car, not one that drives 300kmh, drives well off-road, or can carry 10m3 of stuff. Similarly, mediocre furniture (ikea), electronics or most anything else is good enough.
- high_5 7y ago
  Yet, there's Apple that is the exception to this rule
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
a13n 7y ago
Most software businesses are driven by some sort of funnel - a set of conversion rates. If you make things simpler/easier/clearer, conversion rates will almost always improve. The "dumbification" trend you describe is simply driven by capitalism.
lunias 7y ago
I hope so! I've had so many software enhancements written off by product owners because the features were, "targeted at power users". It gets tiring explaining that while we might not have any power users before the app is released (besides devs); we certainly will if our app meets with any definition of success. That being said, I once put my high-expectations into hasty action and found out that my expectations and my customer's expectations can differ in seemingly impossible ways. I was working on-site at a gold mine in Nevada performing updates to our mining software suite when I became deeply bothered by the fact that the touchscreen panel which we installed in the equipment had a keyboard where the letters were laid out alphabetically. I quickly coded up a QWERTY version (and even had a DVORAK mode that could be toggled via an environment variable). I pushed the code that night and then went to an operator training session the following evening. More than one person asked why all the letters on the keyboard were in a random order. I barely tried to explain. Just admitted that it was a mistake and rolled back the code change.
- brokenmachine 7y ago
  They'd seriously never seen a computer keyboard?
  - lunias 7y ago
    I guess... I'm sure they'd seen a keyboard, but likely never studied it. Lots of flip phones and people that used a computer once at the library. Seemed impossible in 2011.

by nnq 7y ago

gtirloni 7y ago

That was my initial gut feeling as well but high-expectation doesn't necessarily mean "more features" or "more customization". It could mean "simply works without much trouble" and then the dumbification trend fits perfectly.

vinceguidry 7y ago
The article was pretty specific about what it meant. She meant 1) someone who benefited from the solution 2) already had a hacked-together solution, and 3) had other people looking up to them in their field.

ako 7y ago

You shouldn’t market it as mediocre, but data will correctly show most customers are best served by mediocre products: most people need a mediocre car, not one that drives 300kmh, drives well off-road, or can carry 10m3 of stuff. Similarly, mediocre furniture (ikea), electronics or most anything else is good enough.

high_5 7y ago
Yet, there's Apple that is the exception to this rule
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

a13n 7y ago

Most software businesses are driven by some sort of funnel - a set of conversion rates. If you make things simpler/easier/clearer, conversion rates will almost always improve. The "dumbification" trend you describe is simply driven by capitalism.

lunias 7y ago

I hope so! I've had so many software enhancements written off by product owners because the features were, "targeted at power users". It gets tiring explaining that while we might not have any power users before the app is released (besides devs); we certainly will if our app meets with any definition of success. That being said, I once put my high-expectations into hasty action and found out that my expectations and my customer's expectations can differ in seemingly impossible ways. I was working on-site at a gold mine in Nevada performing updates to our mining software suite when I became deeply bothered by the fact that the touchscreen panel which we installed in the equipment had a keyboard where the letters were laid out alphabetically. I quickly coded up a QWERTY version (and even had a DVORAK mode that could be toggled via an environment variable). I pushed the code that night and then went to an operator training session the following evening. More than one person asked why all the letters on the keyboard were in a random order. I barely tried to explain. Just admitted that it was a mistake and rolled back the code change.

brokenmachine 7y ago
They'd seriously never seen a computer keyboard?
- lunias 7y ago
  I guess... I'm sure they'd seen a keyboard, but likely never studied it. Lots of flip phones and people that used a computer once at the library. Seemed impossible in 2011.