The Complexity of Simplification

I am not an IT systems architect. I consider myself a regular IT user, like most of us.The Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv recently focused on great IT failures of the last decade, mainly within the public sector - I presume the failures aren't less frequent in the private sector but just not so... public.

How to fail: lack of focus and product vision

Both academic research and experienced it-staff have pointed at several reasons for failures. Besides massive complexity, lack of focus and lack of product vision I will not discuss why projects fail, but I would like to focus on myself. In the role of the user. As Daniel G.R. Butenschøn says in the article, too many systems are made without being aligned with the end users of the solution. And I don't think I differ from you - I prefer simple and easy-to-use systems. No menues I never will use. No buttons I don't use. Never mind those reports that are nonsense for my business. I just want to get my job done. Better than before.

Young employees knows apps. Not dos commands.

The upcoming generation, grown up with mobile devices and self-explaining apps will be way more user-focused than I am. I have seen some beautiful examples of complex IT-systems that looks easy for the end user. And I have seen a lot of systems growing out of their original purpose: there is a need for a new menu, new functionality, more reports etc. In the old world this functionality would be distributed to all users, over years turning sweet software into a monster. I hope the new world will give the users exactly what they need, and nothing more. Role-based access to software, right?

If you know something very well, you are able to explain it in a simple and easy way to understand. I think we need to know the user need extremely well to make software the user will love. And the end user needs to be hands-on as the solution is being completed.

At F5 IT we work hard to make beautiful solutions the users will love. We work hard to simplify complex work settings. By good design and smooth integrations we hope to reduce the number of systems or the number of things you need to do to get your work done. To simplify operations.

I guess the old saying, KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid, is even more important when the users are more - and eventually only - mobile...