Do Not Design for a Personal Computer

The Personal Computer World

The world of personal computers is populated with hardware accompanied by mice for movement, large screens, lots of wires, vast amounts of memory, and keyboards as the primary input device. The software is large, complex, and contains vast amounts of redundancy from application to application; for example, word processors have draw tools, draw programs have word processors, and so on.

There is a perception among personal computer application designers that for a software application to be successful, it must offer not only a few innovative features, but every other feature found in similar applications (a perception fueled by the press with their bullet chart reviews, no doubt). This has resulted in software that can help with a variety of tasks, but requires extensive training to use.


An online version of Programming for the Newton using Macintosh, 2nd ed. ©1996, 1994, Julie McKeehan and Neil Rhodes.

Last modified: 1 DEC 1996