Re: Options and choises rant

[Dennis Leeuw]

Sašo Kiselkov wrote:
> I totally agree that non-technical users (i.e. most of humanity) are certainly
> very confused by lots of buttons and choices. I also agree with the general
> reduction of clutter on windows - it's often unnecessary in apps not targeted
> for the technical audience.
>
> However, I'd like to discurage from removing features for the sake of simplicity
> - that's not the right way to do it. Look at how NeXT did it instead. The
> features were present and their presence on screen was configurable, but only
> when the user requested them would they be moved into the user's visiblity
> field, i.e. they were not enabled by default. Say, for example, the Workspace
> Manager didn't display any hidden files in your system by default (e.g. stuff
> like /usr, /tmp, .dotfiles etc.), but making it so is just a few clicks away -
> bring up Preferences, choose 'UNIX Expert' preferences and turn on 'Expert File
> System'.

I think you have a very true point here. It says what I mean. Unix 
Expert is what is meant. Not the need to remove features, but to "hide" 
them more logically. So people who do not care do not have to see them. 
The application can be made to appear simple, but still have all the 
advanced features.

Thanks,

Dennis



--
"It is not necessary to change.
 After all, survival is not mandatory."
        Dr. W. Edwards Deming