The Most Dreaded Question
The Most Dreaded Question
“So, what’s new in the new version?”
Auggh!
This should be an easy question. For some reason, it never is. And, for some other reason, no one ever accepts the simple, short answer: “Lots of new stuff. Really.”
Part of the reason I struggle is that I know why I did what I did, why I added what I added–but I know these things in “jargon”. It takes me a few iterations (and more than a little bit of hand waving) before I can get the idea stated in a way that sounds useful to users.
For example: I replaced the database used by the software. Because the old database had no future. And the new database supports client-server–which I expect to tap into in the future (post Project Vee). In the process, I totally overhauled and re-abstracted the internal data structures that access the database, making them more robust and simpler (for me) to use.
But what does that mean for a user? As written? Almost nothing. Because to them, sitting outside the UI looking in, the software functions pretty much the same.
So, take 3-4 months of solid work, complete with fits and starts and restarts and data structure redesign and a ridiculous amount of testing, and reduce it to one, quick statement that references a feature you only had to turn on when you first installed the library: “Maximum Journal Volume size expanded from 2GB to 128GB.”
<sigh>
That’s the curse of a mature product, it seems. And an example of the concept of “diminishing returns”, where you put in more and more effort for fewer and fewer visible results.
Now you know why Office 2007 added “ribbon bars”. Without those, Word 2007 would’ve looked exactly the same as…oh…Word 1997. It’s hard to justify the cost of an upgrade where 99% of users wouldn’t know you changed anything at all.
-David
