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We hear a lot about keeping products (esp interfaces) “simple”, and rejecting “feature explosion”... but all that seems to fly in the face of the success & ubiq

We hear a lot about keeping products (esp interfaces) “simple”, and rejecting “feature explosion”... but all that seems to fly in the face of the success & ubiquity of the spreadsheet. I don’t understand why this glaring mismatch is not addressed explicitly, more often. It’s typically the case that for any powerful tool, any power user might use only 10%, but it’s often a different 10%. The solution is to design a good on boarding process / learning curve which lets users figure out what subset works for them. Are we going to be forever stuck in the purgatory of having limited tools because the UX has to involve no learning/development (I.e. be “intuitive”)?

TeMPOraL 6y ago
The way I look at it: Excel has near-infinite space for the user to grow. Almost all its advanced features are easily discoverable, but they don't interfere with basic work. People get to learn Excel as much as they need or like, and the more they know, the more kinds of work they can do with it. Contrast that with many popular SaaS products, which seem designed around capturing a particular workflow and building a shiny structure around it. This allows new users to complete the desired workflow with nearly zero learning - but then they can't do anything else. There's no space to grow. It feels like a fundamental difference in thinking. Excel is like a box of tools. Initially you only need to drive a few nails, so you grab a hammer and start pounding. Over time, you'll figure out how to use every other tool around your house, swiftly and efficiently. Modern SaaS tooling is like Juicero. Beautiful on the surface, extremely inefficient and wasteful (and to think of all the engineering hours behind it!), and at the end of the day, all you can use it for is squeeze some DRMed juice until eventually the company folds and you're left with an expensive paperweight. I mean, the number of products I've seen that would be more ergonomic if implemented in, and distributed as, an Excel spreadsheet, is getting too large to even call it funny. Sometimes a smart business embraces this analogy literally. Ever heard of Palisade? They're leading the information security risk modelling market, and their product is literally an Excel plugin. And, having worked in this space, were I a CISO, I'd chose them over the various startups that've been popping up over the years, simply on the grounds of ergonomics. So by all means, design a good onboarding process. But it's good to have something to onboard people into. (Excuse the rant.)
- ssivark 6y ago
  Nicely put. What’s particularly aggravating is the push to unbundle features from a flexible power-tool like a spreadsheet, into siloed apps which can only do one thing, and charge recurring fees. When a user’s needs morph or expand, they hit a wall and are now held hostage by the service provider.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

The way I look at it: Excel has near-infinite space for the user to grow. Almost all its advanced features are easily discoverable, but they don't interfere with basic work. People get to learn Excel as much as they need or like, and the more they know, the more kinds of work they can do with it. Contrast that with many popular SaaS products, which seem designed around capturing a particular workflow and building a shiny structure around it. This allows new users to complete the desired workflow with nearly zero learning - but then they can't do anything else. There's no space to grow. It feels like a fundamental difference in thinking. Excel is like a box of tools. Initially you only need to drive a few nails, so you grab a hammer and start pounding. Over time, you'll figure out how to use every other tool around your house, swiftly and efficiently. Modern SaaS tooling is like Juicero. Beautiful on the surface, extremely inefficient and wasteful (and to think of all the engineering hours behind it!), and at the end of the day, all you can use it for is squeeze some DRMed juice until eventually the company folds and you're left with an expensive paperweight. I mean, the number of products I've seen that would be more ergonomic if implemented in, and distributed as, an Excel spreadsheet, is getting too large to even call it funny. Sometimes a smart business embraces this analogy literally. Ever heard of Palisade? They're leading the information security risk modelling market, and their product is literally an Excel plugin. And, having worked in this space, were I a CISO, I'd chose them over the various startups that've been popping up over the years, simply on the grounds of ergonomics. So by all means, design a good onboarding process. But it's good to have something to onboard people into. (Excuse the rant.)

ssivark 6y ago
Nicely put. What’s particularly aggravating is the push to unbundle features from a flexible power-tool like a spreadsheet, into siloed apps which can only do one thing, and charge recurring fees. When a user’s needs morph or expand, they hit a wall and are now held hostage by the service provider.