People like to put down Apple because their products are very simple and basic… not a lot of buttons, not a lot of options. Techies often hate the products because they are not designed to allow for unlimited options and customization.

But, you know I think Apple got it right.

I consider myself a pretty capable techie, but I often have to remind myself that the majority of people using technology (this includes computers, smartphones and websites) are far from the level of understanding I might have. I have to strip away all knowledge I might have and put myself into the shoes of my client and see things as they see it. That view never ceases to amaze me.

When a client calls and says they can’t see the embedded Bandcamp player on their website I begin a series of “support” questions which leads to this…

1. Empty your cache, they reply what is cache and how do I do this?

2. What version of Firefox are you using, they reply version where do I find this?

3. Is version 3 not the most recent?

4. Upgrade, how do I do that?

5. Where do I find the Applications folder on my Mac?

6. Enter this url and goto the website, no not in the Google or Facebook search box in your browser. They reply, but Google is my browser.

This is not isolated, I encounter people all the time who fall into this lack of what I would consider very basic computer knowledge.

So, the question I have to ask everyone out there… you have a new tool, a new website, a new feature that is going to help a musician further their career, sell their music, promote their band, but just how likely is it that it will be used or used successfully when many musicians may not even have a basic understanding of technology? Is it drop dead simple for ANYONE to use? Did you follow the Apple idea and strip out all of the complicated features and make it so simple even your mom could use it? Just because you can load it up with features, maybe you need to ask yourself does the product need all those features? What are the one or two features that the majority of users want? Are those couple of features very apparent and easy to use?

There is no way some musicians could even setup and embed something as simple as Bandcamp (and I know this for fact), let alone other feature rich solutions such as Nimbit or Topspin. Is the answer for these musicians, too bad you just aren’t smart enough, or go spend the money to hire someone? Or is the answer to create a better product that they can use?

A Venturebeat article wrote, “Complex design is far easier and takes much less planning than simple design. It encompasses what your user might want to do, rather than understanding exactly what your user needs. Simplicity, it seems, requires more thought, planning, research and vision.”