Quote:
Originally Posted by TribeFanInNC
My new take is that people shouldn't need different ways. A well designed interface does not need customization in an application where everybody is doing the same thing (managing a baseball team). I never spend time using Excel wishing I could get to Analysis Tools a different way. I want to get there in 1 menu selection and I can. I want easy ways to change decimal places and format cells and copy/paste/move fields - I can.
|
There's a great deal of merit in this argument. Customization can be, often is, in and of itself a steep and complex learning curve. What means what? What do I really need where? How important is this or that? How often do I access a function? What is that function? How do I customize? Can I customize in a way that creates obstacles instead of freedoms? Many of these answers are only discerned after gaining the appropriate experience.
Endless inquiries, but I'm not ruling out the idea that it can be simplified. Practical solutions are available, I'm certain, but one certainly seems to be the idea to make everything available in a universal interface with options to go anywhere, anytime; click any function on/off after exposure to its merit in your environment, and maintain the ability to customize the inner function rather than the overall integration.
It's been suggested that browser-orientations may not be the best model, and I tend to agree, but as interface layouts go, there's something to be said, say for instance, having a IE8 oriented hidden, but exposable left or right hand menu with literally everything in it. While IE8 contains tabs in sequence labeled Favorites, Feeds, and History, we might be able to offer arbitrary overall catch-alls, or even be able to customize those housing tabs so the user could simply collect and modify his own collections (read that Add to Favorites, or Add to Financials...). It'd amount to a concise & self-contained super-charged bookmark with global game reach.
Brainstorming, take it FWIW. Good discussion guys, keep it rolling.