Here's one that's been sitting in my "to blog" pile for a long time, and probably would have been more pertinent to post when Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares was still on the air in the Fall, but it was too good to not post.
Those smart cookies over at 37Signals had a post in their blog (way back in November!) comparing the advice that Ramsey gives to failing restaurants with what they think are wrong with too many applications/sites out there. And they are "spot on" (as Ramsey would say).
Almost all Ramsey’s cases feature an overstuffed menu derived from a misguided notion that more choice is always better and that making every dish under the sun will broaden the appeal of the restaurant. The first order for the cuisine is to trim the choices and go from thirty-some dishes to ten or twelve.
Compare this to a piece of software overflowing with features. None of them particularly tasty, none of them particularly well done, all of them burdening the user with a learning curve and all of them cluttering the interface to the point of mediocracy.
You don’t tickle patron’s taste buds by all the dishes you can make that they don’t eat and you don’t delight users by spreading yourself thin over all the features they won’t use.
Get yourself over to the original post at Signal vs. Noise, What Gordon Ramsey Could Teach Software Developers to read more. And as an extra bonus, enjoy this excerpt from Kitchen Nightmares that illustrates the concept perfectly. Watch Ramsey's reactions...priceless.
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