Manipulate
Did you ever just have one of those programming epiphany moments where you wonder why you didn’t think of it earlier, and why you tried to over-complicate everything rather than just going for the simplest solution?
Slightly connected, but not the same, let me tell you two other things I’m coming to realise.
Firstly, data is king. Presentation less so. Users looking for a web solution such as blogs or forums or image hosting want it because they need somewhere to put their data. The average user who wants to start a blog needs a service like Blogger or Typepad because they offer a box to enter their thoughts into, and they offer a way to get those thoughts back out. The user doesn’t need to worry about what might be going on in the background and most of all, doesn’t want to. They just want a data store. What they’re less concerned with is the presentation of that data on the way in, or the way out. Users will put up with all manner of crap user interfaces with no complaints if the software actually does what it’s intended to do, so until the blogging service starts losing their data, they’ll be fine typing into a plain text box only a few rows and columns high. And when the data is displayed, as long as it’s the same words they put in, that’s fine. Some customisation options are great, people have their favourite colours after all, it makes them feel distinct, but the average user is quite happy with the defaults, hence the success of services like LiveJournal.
The lesson, concentrate on data first. Manipulate it to success.
Secondly, integrated user administration systems sound good in practice, but ultimately just create a less usable experience, creating separate administration systems with one single authentication service is better. Logging into one central place to manage options across lots of different sites and services seems like a great way to go, but the resulting system will suffer from identity crisis. Users are normally logging in to perform a single administrative task, like posting a new entry on their blog. Centralised systems clutter their screen with unrelated options, making them drill down through more areas to get to the one they want. Even systems that might try and offer the more regularly used options first fall down when the user shares their time equally between posting on their blog and running their forum.
The lesson, monolithic is bad. Let each admin system speak for itself.
