As this is my very first blog I was happily surprised at how simple and easy it was. Although I work with new technologies everyday and should have more faith, I still find I am a little hesitant in approaching them unless I know I have spare time to learn how to use them!

Thinking about this topic led me to scrap my original thoughts of writing about accessibility, and comment instead on how much time we waste learning how to use software and their many ne’er-seen-again features.

Surely, when using software we should be able to get stuck in, do the task and then forget about it. Instead we end up spending longer using the software than actually DOING the task! This has to be the most inefficient way of working. I can’t ever imagine looking for tutorials on how to get my pencil to write for me.

It doesn’t end at the initial use of the software either, the ongoing solution to the increasingly complicated features is the annoying stalker-esque help facility that pops up every few minutes, merely highlighting the fact we are unlikely to figure out how the use the software without it. Once again, this just takes us away from thinking about the task, and back to the software itself.

I would argue that most of us use less than 10% of most software features anyway for repetitive tasks, and when we do want to do something a bit different, we usually end up having to spend ages painfully searching these help guides with ingenious phrases only to find it’s not possible after all.

I am not saying the usability of software has not improved – it has – but we are still far away from being able to work without additional thought and time being wasted on the software and not the task-at-hand.

My thoughts are instead of trying to add all features for all people, leaving most people unhappy with the 10% they use. Wouldn’t it be much more logical to create just that 10% perfectly for the specific needs of the known users? Hence, rendering the actual software use invisible and freeing us all up to do the actual work we need to do. To quote Adrian’s earlier posting - keep your eyes posted - this blog will reveal all!

Author: Dean Russell