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Subject:RE: Article: Looking for the Eureka Button From:"Mike Hiatt" <mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 25 Jun 2004 09:13:59 -0500
Yes, but ... which 5%? My 5% may not be your 5% and neither of ours may be my Dad's 5%.
Take undo for example. Many Frame users complain about not having multiple - if not unlimited - levels of undo in Frame (you know, like at least one dominate word processing application). However, one level is fine for me 99% of the time. So I really don't care about Adobe making multiple levels of undo. Those that need it can get the plugin I've seen mentioned on the Framers list lately.
I understand why software packages have all those features I don't use, someone else does. And I bet I use many features they don't. Does that mean I don't want it to work flawlessly? Not a bit. Do I expect it to work flawlessly? Nope. But I understand how that feature creep occurs. Excuse me, I now need to document the latest "must have" feature they just added to our product. :-)
Mike Hiatt
Manager, Tech Pubs
VocalData, Inc.
Dallas, TX (yep, that one) mailto:mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com
www.vocaldata.com
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-86349 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-86349 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Sean Hower
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 8:53 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Article: Looking for the Eureka Button
This is exactly the kind of problem that Alan Cooper discusses in The Inmates are Running the Asylum.
My question is, if people only use 5% of features (as discussed in the article) and complain about problems with bugs and usability (my own observations), why don't companies switch their attention from bells and whistles to stable products that with fewer features? I suppose Adobe sort of did that with Photoshop Elements, but I would think more companies would see the problems and address them rather than pretend the problems don't exist by covering them up with baubles.....oh wait, I guess I answered my own question. ;-)
