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Users only care about 20% of your application

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Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#191

Post by BeFlatXIII »

mrweasel wrote: post #5
nenenejej wrote: post #2

I wonder of the 80% how much would they care for it if they had time to discover and learn it. And how much they really just will never care (unless their role / conpany changes).

Companies frequently moan about "re-training", but in my experience users of e.g. Word, or Excel don't need re-training, they need training. A large number of people how "Knows Word", can't use any of the feature beyond changing the font and font size, not even the "headings". For product like Microsoft Office (or whatever it's called these days) 20% is ludicrously high. I'd guess more in the 1% - 2% range. Especiall…

> A large number of people how "Knows Word", can't use any of the feature beyond changing the font and font size, not even the "headings".

“Knows Word” and “familiar with Windows” are boilerplate résumé spam to match the keyword selection. No one actually is expected to follow up on those bullets.

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#192

Post by pixl97 »

g8oz wrote: post #154
pixl97 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customers buy features, customers rarely buy polish.

Polish increases customer lifetime value.

This means really little in itself.

Can your customer switch to another product, yes or no. If no, then polish won't happen.

Do customers actually value 'real' polish and not just a slick looking UI? If no, then real polish doesn't matter.

As a software writer you'll get your ass kicked into the ground by another company that writes catchy features and nice looking interfaces 9 times out of 10. So few actual customers know out to measure 'polish' that it's almost a non consideration.

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#193

Post by ivanjermakov »

From another angle, user doesn't need 80% of your application. This is a key to keep software simple, fast, and convenient to use. The downside (for some) is that because every users's needs are different, software needs to be tweaked and compiled by the end user.

Notable example of this approach is suckless' programs[1] such as dwm, dmenu, and st.

I also took this philosophy and wrote hat - a hackable text editor[2]. Mostly because tweaking neovim was not a pleasant experience and took more steps than it should.

[1]: https://suckless.org/

[2]: https://github.com/ivanjermakov/hat

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#195

Post by pinkmuffinere »

raincole wrote: post #50
CodesInChaos wrote: post #19

Pretty similar article to some old Spolsky blogposts: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/03/23/strategy-letter-iv... https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/12/09/simplicity/

It's crazy how well Joel Spolsky's works aged. Some of them ended up proving wrong (like he once predicted that making graphic cards would be a very thin margin business[0]), but most are still true today. Probably truer than when they were written. [0]: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v In his defense, by the time 'video chips' were totally different things from today's mighty 5080.

I'm not an expert in the space, but I'm guessing that graphics cards have only been a non-thin-margin-business for like 5 years. If that's true, the Joel's prediction about graphics cards may even still turn out true on net -- it could still go back and stabilize at low-margin.

That said, I think your overall point isn't affected by my idea. Even a great mind can be wrong occasionally. He doesn't have to be right every time.

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#196

Post by Dylan16807 »

stronglikedan wrote: post #122
tnolet wrote: post #68

Very true. But then you start selling to Enterprise and everything changes. Because one missing "hygiene feature"* can tank the the whole deal. And every Enterprise has a different one. *like a toilet. It needs to be there. You use it 3 minutes per day. If it is not there, the house is uninhabitable.

> like a toilet... You use it 3 minutes per day I think you may need to go see a doctor about that, seriously.

What do you imagine is bad about that number?

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#198

Post by rubicon33 »

pixl97 wrote: post #192
g8oz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish increases customer lifetime value.

This means really little in itself. Can your customer switch to another product, yes or no. If no, then polish won't happen. Do customers actually value 'real' polish and not just a slick looking UI? If no, then real polish doesn't matter. As a software writer you'll get your ass kicked into the ground by another company that writes catchy features and nice looking interfaces 9 times out of 10. So few actual customer…

Unless that polish has value. Thats the hard part, knowing what features to really spend that extra time on, and which to 1 and done.

Re: Users only care about 20% of your application

#199

Post by faeyanpiraat »

rpigab wrote: post #197
faeyanpiraat wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why though

They never use the software the way I intended them to. I should get rid of all of them. No users = no bugs.

Well, if you code stuff for your own use, or just for the enjoyment of coding, then this is completely valid.
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