December
2005
Simplicity0
I can’t help admiring the technical achievement in making an Ajax-based browser-resident Outlook clone. I also can’t help thinking how I consistently failed using Outlook as my email client [1] . So, do we really need such an application? Isn’t gmail enough? I wouldn’t be surprised if despite the latest hype surrounding Ajax applications we’ll really be using those who prove to be simple and functional rather than those which mimic their desktop ancestors with great self indulgent.
A recent Nielsen article confirms this. The naive browser interface that we’ve grown accustomed to is a blessing for many applications. It makes simplicity shine by forcing the developers to abide to the html’s restrictions hence forcing us (the developers) to actually refine the functionality and the user experience so it’ll fit a (relatively) limited UI platform. It is also by now a standard platform which is known to be powerful yet simple enough for a great deal of application.
Indeed elegant (read simple and concise) user experience is not outside of the Ajax reach, yet Ajax developers are much more likely to jump through hoops if they only can. Surely you’ve seen a grinning programmer after he finally got to use that library/API everybody is talking about. Frankly most of the time we are concerned more with our (programmers) own delight than the users needs. While Google did miracles (as always) with gmail and 37signals are, well, 37signals I doubt will see a lot of such fine Ajax based applications.
[1] ...and run away screaming into the loving arms of Thunderbird or M2. Actually MS Project also proved to be a software I simply failed to learn how to use despite repeated attempts. I honestly tried to overcome my inherent inclination to use an MS product, but these two applications turned out to be so annoying, so rigid and so different from what I expect from an application that I just gave up.