December 23, 2009Apple, Amazon And Google's Simple Success - the evolving interface.Article on how these companies know how to make technologies more complex without frustrating users. It makes some very good points on user interface. I myself felt dis-productive once Office 2007 switched me to the ribbon. It disconnected me from Office ultimately. It's hard to design tech products that appear simple, so here are a few proposed ground rules on how to increase technology complexity without frustrating or alienating users (who value simplicity more than they think they do). Evolve, Don't Upgrade. A series of small changes executed over time can be perceived as no change at all. A single great leap forward, in contrast, is hard to disguise as anything but that. Erosion and typhoons both alter the landscape, but a lot more people notice the typhoons. This implies that if technologists want to add a bunch of new features and functionality to their offerings without being obvious about it, they should introduce them in dribs and drabs over time rather than dumping them on users all at once. read rest of article at Forbes.com Posted by staff at December 23, 2009 09:28 AM |