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Easier to Use PC's

Cost-Effective IT: Are PC's getting easier to use?, by Richard Sonnier

Houston Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly information on our show about business technology issues. He can be reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.

This week I will answer the question "Are PC's getting easier to use?"

Graphical User Interfaces

Originally, everything you did with computers was text. You typed in the data and received text back. Apple introduced the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the PC market in the 1980's with the claim that the GUI made the computer easy to use. Indeed, the GUI was a great advance because it reduced the number of details the user had to remember to use the PC.

What about today's PC? We still have the GUI especially the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows. However, many people find PC software harder and harder to use. The problem is complexity. When I worked at a major oil company, my team was given the task of simplifying the installation of thousands of workstations (high powered PCs). Our marching orders were very simple: Options are bad! This seems very odd at first because the great advantage of the PC is flexibility. The software can be configured to do so many useful things. The problem is companies do not make any profits fiddling around with software. You must cut down the options, eliminate the choices and automate the processing.

Are PC's getting easier to use?

No, they are not. The software is simply too complex. PC's are so powerful that programmers have no constraints. Whatever neat or cool things they can dream up, they can implement in the next version of the software; and cool new features sell software. Everyone wants to get that upgrade once they see the neat demonstration of all the new stuff. In the movie Jurassic Park, Ian says: "but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." I believe software developers are in the same boat. They can do almost anything, but they are not thinking about making the software easier to use. Instead, software vendors just pack in more and more features. We need another revolution like Apple's GUI.

Next week, I will discuss the coming ease of use revolution in software.

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