Software is an enigmatic black box that most users don’t quite understand. Everyone uses software, but most people don’t give much thought to what’s going on every time they press a magic button. They have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes.
Users are an enigmatic black box that most developers don’t quite understand. Software needs users, but most developers don’t give much thought to what’s going on every time a user presses a button. They have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes.
Developers often have no idea what users really want or need.
Users usually have no idea what is possible or viable.
When it comes to software, users really want a magic button that they can press and it does everything for them. But that’s just not always possible. When it comes to software, developers really want to build a smart and complex system that users can explore and configure so that they can do their work in any way they want. But that’s just not what the user necessarily needs.
Do you see the problem here?
It takes a lot more effort for a developer to build a clean, simple, easy-to-use system that handles data in clever ways behind the scenes. It takes a lot more effort for a user to use a complex system that is highly configurable and requires you to learn the system in depth.
It’s a trade-off: Developer effort versus user effort.
The more magical a button is, the more work a developer did behind the scenes and the less burden there is on a user to figure it out. The less magical a button is, the less work a developer did behind the scenes and the more burden there is on a user to figure it out.
That’s the magic button theory.
Reality is often somewhere in between. Users: a magic button is not always possible. Developers: please make things easier for your users. Each time you make the system easier to use, you save a lot of time and effort for them. Eighteen hours spent refining a feature sounds like a lot of work, but you might collectively save your patrons thousands of hours. That’s worth it.
It’s like having superpowers.
