Updated
I updated my Arcane Future site today, so this blog will now be linked to it! I am using DreamWeaver to create and maintain my website. The program looks like it can do a lot of things, but the interface makes it really hard for a beginner to figure out how to make it do those things. I even watched some of the videos at Adobe.com, but most assume that one has created a website previously. Then there is this blog software… it removes all of my carriage returns putting everything in one long paragraph. I found a way to trick it into doing what I want some of the time…
My question is: why does most software make the user struggle to get things done? I only use a limited subset of software out there, mostly for programming, math, spreadsheets, and games. And in every case, the struggle isn’t with the concepts of the application, but with the User Interface.
I am not a UI person, my passion is for code performance. But at some point, doesn’t UI factor into this? If it takes a person 2x to 10x longer to get to the part where they are being creative, doesn’t that overwhelm the time I can gain by making the program 2x to 10x faster?
Which is worse: finding a program that does what you want, but is unusable because the UI totally obscures the functionality, or finding a program that does what you want but it takes hours to run?
-Edward