No cutting edge features here!
Simon Pittman
Available for freelance web work! | WordPress support | Helping sole traders with their existing websites | Author of 7 books | Books & Networking
As someone who creates and develops software products - the title of this post may sound like an odd thing for me to say - surely I should include the latest cutting edge features, technologies, ideas and techniques in my products?
A great alternative title for this post is: "don't try to be clever"!
Let me begin by asking you a question - how many software products or websites that have the latest clever features have you used, that ended up crashing, being unreliable, frustrating or causing all sorts of problems?
Many get frustrated with modern websites, and all their popups asking you to like their Facebook pages, subscribe to their newsletters, whether you'd like to see notifications - preventing you from viewing the actual content because they are trying to be clever!
Be honest - would you prefer something that works, works really well and is easy to use without any hassle?
And that is the philosophy I adopt with my products.
I try to include everything that users need within their products - however I avoid anything uneccessary or that could cause instability.
The other thing I do is to try and stay faithful to how the operating system intends things to be, where possible. For example, I don't see the need to draw my own scrollbars or toolbars when Windows provides a perfectly good one!
(And yes, there are a lot of products that manually try to draw their own items, or have their own titlebars rather then using the Windows ones, which consumes extra memory).
Does this mean my products are behind the times? Absolutely not!
Or that they are not as easy to use? Actually - because I don't include the flashy stuff that gets in the way, they are often much easier to use!
Most of the "cutting edge" features and things people need are most often still there - without the bells and whistles and flashy screens.
Very few features may be missing - however these are things that are hardly used, if at all.
Would you prefer to drive a car that had the latest gadget and needs to go in for repair every week, or prefer a proven make and model, that does the job really well and hardly needs any maintenance?
This is one of the things I cover in my latest book, Creating A New Software Product. If you'd like to learn what is REALLY involved in creating a digital product (its much more then writing lines of code!) - from planning to release, and what you should (and shouldn't) include in your product, you can find my book on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08C8R9R9W
And if you are frustrated with Windows 10, and finding the items you use, and just want to get your work done, then give PittLaunch a try! No gimmicks, no flashy effects that get in your way - just the items you use, ready and available for you to launch! Download and try at: www.pittlaunch.co.uk