argument
Got into a discussion today with a product manager who thought that I should limit functionality and ease in my application by eliminating multiple ways to access the same data. The end result would be that certain people (namely, the customer service group) would have to take a longer path to get to the data they needed. This would be done in the name of giving users a standard path to access data, because she said that users (our employees) wouldn’t understand anything unless you gave them one single path.
I just don’t buy that argument. Design something that gets people to the data and functions they need, as quickly as possible. Efficiency is the key. People aren’t stupid, and software design should not reflect that people are stupid.
As far as the call to “just make it easy for people to use:” People, when you create overly complex business models and products, YOUR SUPPORTING APPLICATIONS ARE GOING TO BE COMPLEX. There’s just no other way around it. They will require training. I can’t magically import an understanding of how our business works into user’s heads when they load the program.
I am getting tired of the constant calls for “make it so easy to understand, I should be able to load up the application and understand it immediately.” People at my company seem to arrive immediately at the end result they think they want, without the knowledge of what it takes to build it, nor the details from beginning to end.
Two executives that I “grew up under” have gone. Time to seriously investigate other options.