The term I like (don't know where I picked it up) is "discoverable." The simple things are easy, but you can discover over time how to do the complex things.

The term I like (don't know where I picked it up) is "discoverable." The simple things are easy, but you can discover over time how to do the complex things. This has two benefits: the obvious benefit is that it allows the user to be productive immediately, without training, without having to memorize a manual. The "hidden" benefit is that the program becomes an adventure game... it continues to surprise, delight, and reward the user long after the excitement of the initial purchase has faded. IMHO, this is Apple's "secret sauce." Their hardware and software is just hardware and software, it can be mimicked. The thing that sets their hw/sw apart is its discoverability, and that is very, very hard to copy because it is a thought process, a concept, a zen. Jason Fried makes this point in SvN: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1561-why-you-shouldnt-copy-us-or-anyone-else http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1561-why-you-shouldnt-copy-us... (with a recursive reference to HN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=469940 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=469940 :-).