Improved Beyond Use. That’s the phrase that Paul used in the comments of an excellent comic on http://stuffthathappens.com.
I was just talking to a user who was bemoaning Word Perfect’s feature creep and explained that was why he was using an old version. He only used Word because he has to now. I’m amazed at how little thought goes into many apps and sites. My wife is a travel agent, and she deals with some horrific PC software just in order to do her job (a poster on the original post linked to a horrific software UI which I can only hope is fabricated). It’s been improved so much, that it’s unusable.
Hopefully with the continuing development of Web 2.0 and appropriate use of AJAX, simplicity can be valued and improved. I’ve enjoyed using Basecamp because of their simple interface without sacrificing functionality. Good stuff. I liked this comparison of Twitter’s interface improvements. Twitter was always simple but it has gotten better through time.
On the other hard, whenever I’ve used Microsoft Express Manager to administer MSSQL, I want to cry.
The comic’s Apple example obviously highlights the iPhone/iPod touch. I’ll be interested to see how the UI is utilized by developers. Those commenters (and the comments are worth reading) who complain are definitely part of the problem. Just because you’re data needs are complex doesn’t need you require a horrible UI.