I was recently trying to send a photograph by email and given the pixel craze in vogue these days, of course the photograph was too large to send.
To be honest, I am not the multi media type so I dreaded having to decode the tens of parameters required to resize the photo. I had tried to use products like Gimp before (too cheap to spend a few bucks for a passport photo) and had ended up thoroughly confused and messing up the photographs!
As I opened up MS Picture Manager I braced myself to dive into the black hole of tech complexity. But lo and behold, it offered me 3 simple resize options – document, web & email. I selected email and some intelligent person had already done the thinking for me. It nicely resized the photograph to a couple of hundred kilobytes and I was done!
We learn everyday that users are kings and we must put ourselves in their shoes. Then why do only a handful of products and offerings come out showing that they care. Its not about taking the flexibility away, because you can always provide advanced options for the well initiated.
As for me, I was blown away by this simple feature. Someone compassionate and clever had decided to do the thinking for me and left the complicated matters for those who care. That’s what most users want, don’t they.
Call me simple. Call me stupid. Call me a novice.
I agree.
For some things I just want to be treated like a dummy.
Three cheers for those who care!