Jason Fried wrote a beautiful post called Control vs Communication for the 37 Signals blog today.
Every once in a while we get an email from a customer asking about how permissions work with our products. They’re almost always asking how to prevent someone from doing something…
When they ask how to prevent people from doing this or that I usually reply with something like ‘Have you tried asking them not to do this or that?’ …And to my delight, their replies are usually ‘Great idea! I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll try that and see how it works.’
For this he was hammered by commenters who said he’s naive and that his philosophy doesn’t work in the real world. It seems to me that 37 Signals has already proven that it does work, and when 37 Signals say limiting what people can do is a bad idea, we should listen.
Limits Are Bad Design
If there’s one thing that drives me absolutely bat shit nuts, it’s someone assuming their superiority over their users and limiting what the users can do. It inevitably leads to inefficiency and frustration for the power users. If users screw something up, it’s because either 1) the design wasn’t straightforward and intuitive enough or 2) the user was trying to do something the designer didn’t anticipate. In both cases, better design is the right fix. A lazy, unimaginative designer fixes the problem by imposing limits from above.
An Example
I’m not just talking about software. Frank Lloyd Wright insisted on designing everything in the houses he designed: furniture, lamps, drawer pulls, every detail. He didn’t want his users messing up his creation by filling it with ugly modern furniture or whatever else their inferior minds might dream up. Occasionally, he would freak out when he returned to a house he’d designed and found the furniture rearranged or curtains on the windows.
He was also a fairly small guy, something like 5′-8″, and he’s famous for low ceilings and doorways designed to his proportions. I love the changes in ceiling plane, but I’m 6′-3″ and I literally can not stand up in some of his small rooms. Just raising them all a few inches would have solved the problem for most people.
The problem with Wright’s top-down megalomaniac design approach is that a lot of the people that actually lived with his prearranged furniture, lack of privacy, and head bumping ceilings didn’t like them. His designs tend to be beautifully composed, but uncomfortable and awkward. Once, a tall fellow told Wright that his hat was constantly being knocked off by Wright’s low doorways to which Wright responded “don’t wear a hat.”
That’s the wrong answer. Wright’s houses are beautiful, but he went way too far with the control-freak thing. Whatever you are designing is there to provide a service for the user. As the designer it is your job to anticipate what that user will want and give it to them as best you can. After that, the user needs to have control. After the first design iteration it is the designer’s job to sit back, watch users interact with it, and learn. Then adjustments can be made to better meet their needs.
Good Design Involves the Users
Good design is a co-creation between the designer and the users. Great design usually comes from designers who are themselves users. Christopher Alexander designs architecture that way, the open source movement designs that way, and 37 Signals designs that way.
I wonder how many of the negative comments were from actual 37 Signals users. Was this user feedback or was it system admins who assume that their users are idiots and want to lock down the system to control the lowest common denominator?
Online Applications Are Perfect For Great Design
In 37 Signals case, they have the advantage of designing on-line applications. They can watch how users interact with their products in real time. They get instantaneous feedback, and can make a small adjustment and see the effects of that one change. As I understand it, they are also users. They are in a good position to have an opinion. Jason also says this:
We do have some permissions in Basecamp. There are some basic controls over who can do what, but as far as products like Basecamp go, Basecamp would be considered among the least controlling. If we started all over today we’d probably have even less permissions and less controls. Some of the controls we’ve put in place have turned out to make collaboration harder, not easier.
Amen, brother.
