Citation
(2002), "Trees and wood", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951eaa.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
Trees and wood
Trees and wood
Enhancing products and services is to be applauded, right? Well, yes … except that sometimes, products and services get enhanced to the point where they lose convenience or usability. The number of options becomes so great that it gets difficult to understand what to do simply to make the thing work – at a simple level. You can't see the wood for the trees. This is true of many consumer electronic goods (I know that there is a cliché about only kids understanding videorecorders, but there is some truth in that – many people get daunted by the instructions required for simple timer programming), computer software, and now even Websites. Complexity is the enemy of usability. When enhancing functionality, companies would do well to enhance the user interface at the same time!