I plead with anyone reading this to not be overly dogmatic with streamlining away all options and configuration. I find this irksome on my mobile devices and as the religion of simplification leaks into the desktop space, I find it outright frustrating.
Firefox has about:config as a saving grace, so if options were removed from its user interface, I would be able to make do. In fact, I'd pay money to see about:config or similar in every application. For example, I set slider.snapMultiplier to zero to remove that annoying snap-back on the scrollbar thumb when you drift too far in the perpendicular. Good luck describing that one in a dialog box.
But unfortunately, in other products, hiding options is often just straight-up removing options.
While I appreciate reducing confusion by hiding options that are difficult to describe, I would prefer an "advanced settings" section. Perhaps consider three tiers, as with Firefox (options, advanced, and about:config).
I was really upset at all the options I lost in applications on my phone when it updated from Ginderbread to ICS. I wanted a more powerful phone. But now many of the features I typically used are gone. Note to developers: beating iOS doesn't necessarily mean becoming more like it.
Note to developers: beating iOS doesn't necessarily mean becoming more like it.
That is SO very well said... I wish I'd thought of that myself. In particular, I wish I'd thought to say - about 10 years ago - "Note to developers: beating Internet Explorer doesn't necessarily mean becoming more like it."
I still remember so may discussions about Firefox (and Mozilla the browser before that) where somebody proposed something and it was shot down because "That's not the way Internet Explorer does it" or "IE doesn't have that". sigh
Firefox has about:config as a saving grace, so if options were removed from its user interface, I would be able to make do. In fact, I'd pay money to see about:config or similar in every application. For example, I set slider.snapMultiplier to zero to remove that annoying snap-back on the scrollbar thumb when you drift too far in the perpendicular. Good luck describing that one in a dialog box.
But unfortunately, in other products, hiding options is often just straight-up removing options.
While I appreciate reducing confusion by hiding options that are difficult to describe, I would prefer an "advanced settings" section. Perhaps consider three tiers, as with Firefox (options, advanced, and about:config).