Thrudigital

I am my family’s tech support.

I came to accept this fact a long time ago and have since got used to the idea that as soon as I return home for a weekend I won’t be allowed to leave (or in some cases even eat or sleep) until I’ve fixed all the problems with every technological entity within the building that I call home. On my last visit I discovered that they had purchased a brand new DVD/Hard Drive video recorder for the lounge. I should mention that this is the third video recorder that they have purchased in as many years and, just like the other two, it’s truly awful.

When my Mother is trying to set the new video recorder for Coronation Street in the ad breaks before X-Factor (whilst also attempting to dish up dinner and stop my younger brother from killing my sister), she doesn’t want to be trying to work out which of the 58 buttons on the remote she needs to press to change the recording quality – or why her last three recordings have all ended up with subtitles. Instead, she wants easy to use controls that allow her to set up the recordings, without being bamboozled by acronyms, jargon and irritatingly abstract trademarks.

Of course my parents, like most of the population, have become accustomed to the idea that video recorders are complicated and confusing beings that cannot be tamed, and that they will always be this way. This has led to complacency on the part of the manufacturers, who are perfectly happy introducing even more of the aforementioned acronyms to describe new features that aren’t really needed, but never stopping to realise that the products they’re making are a complete pain in the arse to use. It amazes me that no-one in the companies producing these devices that grace our living rooms has realised that it might perhaps be a good idea to produce something with an intuitive and pleasing interface, as few buttons as possible and a clock that can be set without a PhD in electrical engineering; to strip it back to the basics and keep it there until the basics work perfectly.

We use this very approach here at thrudigital – keep the idea as simple as possible to start with – refining until it’s as reliable, friendly and well designed as well feel possible – before adding any extra layers of complication.

Writing about Apple’s success with the iPhone, John Gruber posted a reference to ‘Gall’s Law’, which states:

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”
JOHN GALL

One thing that I think Apple were wise to do when launching their phone was to resist adding everything at once. They were slated on launch for their lack of MMS, Copy & Paste and native third party apps – but what was there had clearly been refined and simplified until it was a joy to use. I’m not saying it was perfect, but in choosing to focus on the basics they allowed themselves the time and the simplicity to get the fundamentals right and defy the critics.

So, whether developing website, video recorder or phone, keep things simple and allow yourself the time to focus on the details. It’ll pay off. And please, somebody, somewhere, get working on that video recorder.