Late last summer .net Magazine asked me if I’d like to write an opinion piece for them and I happily said yes. Today my piece was published.
Over the months since I started my blog in November 2010 a number of topics arose that I wanted to explore. I’ve previously mentioned that I used to use my longer tube journeys to think things through. What I ended up writing for .net Magazine started out as a draft post many moons ago on the busy Piccadilly line between Northfields and Picadilly Circus.
Far too many times have I seen “make it simpler” aired and actioned as merely removing functionality. Rushed deadlines, limited budgets, stressed situations and concerned minds haven’t allowed for the task of ‘simplifying’ to be properly explored and ironed out. Early explorations of routes and functionality have been discarded before they’ve had time to mature and formalise. At times there seems to be this afraidness that more functionality will just complicate things from an experience point of view. But that’s not always the case. Not if it’s done properly.
Apple is a brilliant example of this and in the iOS5 announcement video they talk of the over 200 new features that was added:
…We’re constantly challenging ourselves to figure out: How can we make the user experience even easier. Even more intuitive. While at the same time adding more powerful functionality. That’s exactly what we’ve done, with iOS5
– Scott Forstall, Vice President iOS Software in the iOS5 video
The devil is in the detail and really well thought through and executed functionality can provide for the most delightful experiences. But functionality heavy or not, simplification is a stage that most projects go through and what I write about in my article is:
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You can get the latest .net issue from the .net shop.
