Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 20, 2004 08:18 PM
Useability is for wimps and morons? To all those who replied, "Useability comments come from whiners, morons etc [insert your favourite disparaging term of contempt here]" I suggest you check a) Hall of Fame/Shame already mentioned and b) Jakob Nielsen's <A HREF="http://www.useit.com/" title="useit.com">http://www.useit.com/</a useit.com> for hard-nosed 'software acceptance' research plus commentary on the benefits of improved useability.
If you want to win the war against the dark side, you have to make your software more attractive to use.
Technical competence (or their umpteen engineering patents which demonstrate same) doesn't sell Mercedes Benz cars - the desire to own one *more than to own a humble GM/Ford/etc* is what does it. Their technical competence is necessary but *not sufficient* to generate the requisite consumer demand.
Technical competence beyond the ken of MS has never been an issue: even Bill is not interested in technical excellence, he just wants world domination. Mediocrity will get him there as long as the latest version is [or appears to be] "easier" than whatever people were doing before.
So my recommendation: do not attempt an open frontal attack on the MS hegemony; rather do an outflanking job - make it so that using OSS becomes a no-brainer because it is just so nice to use.
That's what has kept Steve Jobs and the Apple-wagon rolling...
It also happens to account for a large slab of the equally faithful OS/2-eCS user community staying with a platform which has been declared dead (by MS) annually since 1989<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-).
John Angelico OS/2 SIG Melbourne PC User Group Inc talldad@kepl.com.au
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Re:The Reason why
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 20, 2004 08:18 PMTo all those who replied, "Useability comments come from whiners, morons etc [insert your favourite disparaging term of contempt here]" I suggest you check
a) Hall of Fame/Shame already mentioned
and
b) Jakob Nielsen's <A HREF="http://www.useit.com/" title="useit.com">http://www.useit.com/</a useit.com>
for hard-nosed 'software acceptance' research plus commentary on the benefits of improved useability.
If you want to win the war against the dark side, you have to make your software more attractive to use.
Technical competence (or their umpteen engineering patents which demonstrate same) doesn't sell Mercedes Benz cars - the desire to own one *more than to own a humble GM/Ford/etc* is what does it. Their technical competence is necessary but *not sufficient* to generate the requisite consumer demand.
Technical competence beyond the ken of MS has never been an issue: even Bill is not interested in technical excellence, he just wants world domination. Mediocrity will get him there as long as the latest version is [or appears to be] "easier" than whatever people were doing before.
So my recommendation: do not attempt an open frontal attack on the MS hegemony; rather do an outflanking job - make it so that using OSS becomes a no-brainer because it is just so nice to use.
That's what has kept Steve Jobs and the Apple-wagon rolling...
It also happens to account for a large slab of the equally faithful OS/2-eCS user community staying with a platform which has been declared dead (by MS) annually since 1989<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-).
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
Melbourne PC User Group Inc
talldad@kepl.com.au
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