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April 30, 2009
What makes a great software product?
Whilst I was installing the latest Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007, I mused about what makes the difference between a great software product and a mediocre one. In the Microsoft Office Suite, I would say Microsoft Excel, in each version, goes from strength to strength. And now, Powerpoint 2007 is so far ahead of Powerpoints classic, that it is also starting to show brilliance. Despite the fact that it still doesn’t have the Keynote style card flip that one training participant so drooled over.
Microsoft Word, well, it’s the freshest it’s ever been, with this Office version’s landmark extension of Themes. And it’s even trying to cover up it’s traditional list numbering fumble by clearly identifying to the user, which list numbering style the user currently has in operation. But, that’s a kludge, I bet when the stress happens, Word will fumble again.
Outlook is the least visibly different. Looks like the next version of Outlook will finally see the menu merry-go-round (started from the first Outlook) come to rest in a Ribbon. And Outlook 2007 finally starts making ground in GTD (Getting Things Done) by using quick flagging of items with a date context, tagging with Categories and virtual Search Folders. Service Pack 2 however, claims to improve Outlook 2007’s startup problems and shutdown problems. And that was what triggered to reflect. Outlook, being the client half of an Exchange party, keep repairing the same issues. I remember early versions of Outlook so many years ago, having startup and shutdown problems. And now, they’re still repairing similar issues – of course the causes and complexity is different but that’s the burden of Outlook. When you have software that’s experiencing Groundhog Day, that’s when software lacks brilliance.
Another Microsoft product that often gets caught in a timeloop, I guess is the notorious and famous Windows we all use. Vista experiences must have lent a hand to Microsoft’s lack of brilliance in recent earnings. But if you have some memory, Windows NT 3.1 wasn’t that crash hot (pardon the inference) and who remembers Windows 1.x, 2.x?
Do you have any favourite products of brilliance? No? Of brilliant mediocrity then?
Posted by Anandasim at April 30, 2009 08:26 PM
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Comments
Scrivener, which is only available on Macs, is the greatest invention since Gmail.
And Gmail makes me happy every time I use it.
Posted by: Manolis at April 30, 2009 09:14 PM
Hi Ananda, I'm an occasional user of Access and I must say, they made mess of the toolbar!
I's incredibly hard to navigate compared to Access 2000.
For you of course it would be child's play I guess, or is it?
Posted by: lomaca at May 1, 2009 06:53 PM
Posted by: AnandaSim at May 1, 2009 08:42 PM