Obsessive Computer Disorder

Posted by stephens on Jun 17, 2009 in Demos, Rants, Tips & Techniques, Web Technologies | 0 comments

Eric Kam wrote a great post today about how geeks obsess over the wrong things.

When a geek tells me about some cool functionality that only a PhD would understand, I respond with “who cares?”. If the answer to that question does not boil it down to a time or money savings for the end user, then the answer is in the question.

This mantra is not limited to functionality. It also extends to the user interface.

Some companies obsess over their look and feel to the point of considering it to be proprietary. Who cares? Probably no one.

Here is the acid test for the user interface design: If you can answer “yes” to one or more of the following, then your UI matters.

• My competitors have copied my user interface design.
• My competitors have hired away my user interface designers.
• My competitors have hired a user of my software as a consultant for the user interface design.

In most cases, the UI is a secondary benefit to the user. Functionality that provides a time and cost benefit to the mass market is the only thing that matters.