I am, at heart, a simple man; clean, clear-cut lines, simple colours. My house would probably be a minimalist heaven if I wasn’t so cluttered and lazy. These feelings are also echoed in products I like, from white goods to software and I’m constantly amazed why consumers actually put up with bad design. You generally have to pay large amounts of money to get simplicity,which seems odd to most people but actually makes sense; it’s the experience of knowing what not to have that’s expensive.
Software rarely echoes the simplistic approach; there’s always a desire to pack in more features and while more features are generally good, it’s how those features are surfaced that’s important. User Interface Design is an art, as is User Experience Design. Art is the key word here. Both are often missing from developers; it’s that right-brain/left-brain thing, where you’re creative and artistic or scientific. Some people have both, but statistically speaking they are rare. I obviously have no numbers to back up this claim, but just look at the products around you and look at the software you use; it should be clear that much of it isn’t designed with simplicity in mind.
I tried some new accounting software recently and despite being some of the simplest I’ve used, it wasn’t designed for people who know nothing about accounting, which is sad given its marketing; I used to write accounting software and I didn’t even understand some of it. On the other hand there are products out there that ooze simplicity. The RedGate tools for example, which I’ve mentioned before, are a paragon in the software world; simple and easy to use.
Last night I obtained IconWorkshop from Axialis and this falls into the same category. What did I like about it? I like the way the installation routine includes the registration process, instead of sending you off to a website to register. Once running, I’d got an icon library with multiple sizes within minutes, without having to resort to documentation; the UI is clean and obvious, easy to use. And when you do resort to the documentation it’s full, I means there’s lots of it, as well as a large number of tutorials on their site. This is a company that cares about its customers and clearly wants to help them use their products. If you’re after an icon editor, I can heartily recommend it.