A common way to keep working efficiently on core features (and not bloated features that not everyone needs) is to build a way to allow your users to configure the software to meet their needs. This can range from simple preferences that the user can tweak to more advanced configuration files and plugin support.

• Used more
• More useful
• More fun
• Bring you more customers
• Get you more sales

So you can go on more vacations!

• Less stress for you
• Less stress for your users
• Less code to write, which means less bugs
• Less features, but the right ones
• Less complexity
• Less buttons

But, believe it or not, it’s a lot more work to do less. As the famous quote from Blaise Pascal says: “This letter is very long because I had no time to make it short.”

To be blunt: it’s going to take a lot of work for you to create something that’s simple. You’ll spend significant time thinking and not actually writing any code. This can be difficult for a lot of developers. After all, they equate productivity with typing. But realistically you probably will spend more time thinking than coding.

When it comes to simplicity, your design matters. A lot. You can’t just bang out a solution, figuring it out as you’re coding. Sure, you’ll end up with something and it may even be useful. But it most certainly won’t be simple.

A really good reason to not spend a lot of time coding is so that you can be more flexible. If you come up with a new, better and simpler design, you’ll be more likely to throw away your old design if you didn’t spend many hours coding it up. It’s just a fact. We all get attached to the code we write.

Be simple. Your users will appreciate it.

Your users don’t want to read manuals or go to training in order to effectively use your software. They want to just figure it out as they use it. This means your software needs to respect them. It should be easy for them to learn how to use it. Most importantly, it should be easy for them to correct any mistakes they will make.

Because, rest assured, your users will make mistakes. When the user no longer fears making mistakes they’ll enjoy using your software. And then you’ll start getting feedback that says: “Your software is so easy to use. I love it!”. Trust me, you’ll enjoy that, too!

iPhone

Perhaps the best known case of taking something that was complex and providing a simple alternative. Nearly everyone has a cell phone. Nearly everyone hates their cell phone. Apple took a step back and created a phone that anyone can use. In fact, when they were first released we stopped at an AT&T store to check them out. My daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, was able to pick up the iPhone take pictures, play music and make a call without us showing her how. She certainly can’t do that on my Samsung cell phone.

Sure, Apple took a bit of flak for the iPhone not having all the features that some expected for a smart phone. But it had enough and the lack of features certainly didn’t hurt sales.

Sudoku

I love Sudoku. It’s really simple to learn. You can explain the rules in less than a minute. It became a phenomenon precisely because of this.

iPhoto

I’ve convinced more people to get a Mac by showing them iPhoto than any other reason. People love taking pictures. iPhoto makes it simple to manage your pictures. And it eliminates any fear of editing your pictures because you can always go back to the original with just a single click.

Time Machine

In Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple again took on something that people find too annoying and complex to bother with: backups. Obviously everyone understands the benefits of backups, but most people still didn’t do them. Now with Time Machine, you don’t have to worry about anything. Just plug in an external drive and OS X takes care of the rest. Sure, Time Machine doesn’t have every feature that a backup app could have, but it has enough and is easy. Thus people are using it. It is a major selling point for Leopard.

Wii

I particularly like this example. Nintendo took what many thought was quite a risk by releasing the Wii: a game system that was much less powerful than either the XBox360 or the Playstation 3. In the end, Nintendo was proven right. They reasoned that most people wanted to have a game system that was fun and approachable more than one that was incredibly realistic and complex. I would agree.

Next Post: Simple Is Easy

So I thought it might be a good idea to capture this presentation as a series of blog posts. The presentation consisted of 10 slides and I’ll write about each one over the course of the next 10 days or so.

Up first is “Simple Sells”, so be sure to tune in tomorrow…

It was a hectic last week of work at AMS Services. I was in a lot of meetings as people tried to “pick my brain” one last time. My last day was Friday (3/14), so now I’m officially on my own.

As I mentioned in my original Leaving the Day Job post, we’re parting on good terms. In fact, we just signed a contract for some consulting work for the next few months. In particular, I’ll be helping them build out their community web site, virtualization farm and continue with Team Foundation Server administration.

REAL World

Next week is REAL World, so I’m leaving for Austin on Tuesday. During the keynote Wednesday morning I give my 20 minute talk on Software Made Simple. Although I won’t be directly referencing it in my brief talk, I came across this comic about software simplicity today, which I think is very appropriate. I have to present one session on Thursday and two on Friday, so I’ll be pretty busy while I’m there!

For those not going, I’ll be posting regularly to RBDevZone with updates from REAL World. I may also try Twittering as well.

…There is now a new website for the Association of REALbasic Professionals. If you’re interested in this be sure to attend the meeting on Friday morning or find one of the founders to chat.

When I get back from REAL World, I’ll be immediately kicking into full-time LogicalVue consulting work. Right now I have 6 projects underway with several more likely.

If you’d like to get on my schedule for the summer, now would be a great time to get in touch with me.

Best Buy

There is no official Apple Store in Maine, which is a shame. The closest place to get Apple stuff was at a dealer about 20 miles from me. Until now. The Best Buy in the mall here recently got their Apple section all set up. I stopped by today to check it out and the display was pretty impressive. They had all the laptops (MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air) and the iMacs. They did not have any Mac Pros or Mac Minis. There was a limited amount of software (Quicken, iWork, iLife, Leopard, Office 2008, VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop and CrossOver Office) and some Mac-specific hardware (Airport Extreme, AppleTV, mice and keyboards).

The display was mobbed the entire time I was there. You actually had to wait your turn to get at a Mac. However I didn’t see any Best Buy employees that were attempting to assist any customers.

Unlike some, I don’t mind Best Buy so I’m glad I now have a close place to get my Apple “fix”.

Jeff writes way, way better than I do (for example, he would never write “way, way better”), but his post describes a lot of the feelings I had about my decision to leave my job to work for LogicalVue full-time.  Definitely read it and if you don’t already, subscribe to his blog feed.

Congrats, Jeff.  All the best.

I had been waiting for the new MacBook Pros to be announced so that I could weigh the new features against the prices for refurbished models. With the announcement of the new models, the price of a refurbished 2.4Ghz 15″ MacBook Pro dropped from $2,100 to $1,650. That’s a pretty significant drop and quite a bit less than the original $2,499 price of a new model.

The longer battery life and cooler operation of the newer MacBook Pro models looks like a good thing. But the newer base MacBook Pro, also at 2.4Ghz, has less cache (3MB vs. 4MB) that the refurbished model. And I really didn’t care about the new trackpad gestures.

In the end, I decided that that the refurbished MacBook Pro at $1,650 was a better deal than the new model at $1,999, so I ordered one with the glossy screen. It seems I wasn’t the only one with this thought, because all the refurbished 15″ MacBook Pros were out of stock a couple days later (and are still out of stock). I was a bit torn between glossy or matte for the screen, but after reading up more, I decided that glossy would work for me. I really wanted a brighter screen and since I’m color-blind, I didn’t really need color accuracy. So far, I haven’t noticed significant glare from the glossy screen; I find it to be very readable.

I also ordered 4GB RAM from OWC, a bargain at $95. Everything arrived a few days later and I’ve been transferring all my stuff to it.

Switching from an iMac to any laptop takes a bit of getting used to. Obviously the screen is a lot smaller, although the resolution is not significantly different. I have a 2nd 17″ monitor, which helps a lot when I’m at my desk. But I have to say, I’ve been dreaming about something bigger. A 30″ display sure would be nice!

The MacBook Pro is quite a bit faster than the iMac was. Which should be expected, considering the iMac was an original Core Duo at 2Ghz and the MacBook Pro is a Core 2 Duo at 2.4Ghz. And the MacBook Pro has 4GB whereas the iMac had 2GB. The extra RAM has already come in handy while running Windows inside VMware.

So far I’ve been getting about 4 hours or so from the battery with WiFi on, which seems pretty reasonable to me. When running on the battery, I keep it in “Better Battery Life” mode. It’s never gotten all that hot while running on the battery, topping out at about 110 degrees F. But when plugged in, I’ve had it get as hot as 170 degrees F with the fans going at a pretty good clip. At that temperature it would be way too hot to actually put on my lap.

I really can’t get over how light it is. The only other laptop I’ve used for any length have been an old Compaq Evo which weights about 8 pounds.

All-in-all I’ve been quite pleased with the MacBook Pro. And being able to take it with me on trips, such as REAL World this month, Florida next month and camping during the summer will be a great boon to my productivity.