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Do the users of the software need to know about all that complexity? If the answer is: "they definitely do", then you are right. There's no way around it. If

Do the users of the software need to know about all that complexity? If the answer is: "they definitely do", then you are right. There's no way around it. If the answer is: "No, they only need to know about 4% of it. The rest can be automated and hidden away." then the problem is that people aren't incentivised to pay the cost of building that software. There is a broad solution: Hire engineers, UX designers, and product managers to spend time to solve those problems and to manage that complexity. The problem is that this requires the time and effort of skilled people and that requires a sustained commitment of money. So that requires someone with decision-making power to allocate money from a budget of limited resources. If the additional UI improvement helps win sufficient revenue, then its worth it. But if the additional UI improvement doesn't persuade decision-makers or only helps 1 client account, then it is not.

nradov 7y ago
In this area of enterprise software, the users absolutely need to know about the complexity for compliance reasons. Any errors can potentially result in criminal charges, civil liability, or at least bad PR and employee morale. Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. For example, employers sometimes receive court orders requiring them to periodically seize a certain amount from a particular employee's pay in order to satisfy a legal judgment. And in some cases there can actually be multiple such orders that would effectively reduce the employee's take home pay below zero. Now what do you do? Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity.
- afarrell 7y ago
  > Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. oh I would definitely have assumed so. My question is to what degree does the UI need to lay all that complexity right out for the user and to what degree can it hide it? If humans inherently need to learn about all that complexity, then the best you can do is make it not-needlessly complicated. > Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity. I can't do so in the space of this text box. The answer is practically the field of software engineering. ------- I'm curious what your thoughts are on https://docs.gusto.com/ https://docs.gusto.com/ Is it another "yea, this covers 95% of my use cases, but I need that last 5%" Or is it good?

nradov 7y ago

In this area of enterprise software, the users absolutely need to know about the complexity for compliance reasons. Any errors can potentially result in criminal charges, civil liability, or at least bad PR and employee morale. Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. For example, employers sometimes receive court orders requiring them to periodically seize a certain amount from a particular employee's pay in order to satisfy a legal judgment. And in some cases there can actually be multiple such orders that would effectively reduce the employee's take home pay below zero. Now what do you do? Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity.

afarrell 7y ago
> Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. oh I would definitely have assumed so. My question is to what degree does the UI need to lay all that complexity right out for the user and to what degree can it hide it? If humans inherently need to learn about all that complexity, then the best you can do is make it not-needlessly complicated. > Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity. I can't do so in the space of this text box. The answer is practically the field of software engineering. ------- I'm curious what your thoughts are on https://docs.gusto.com/ https://docs.gusto.com/ Is it another "yea, this covers 95% of my use cases, but I need that last 5%" Or is it good?