Please don't forget the users.

Many who reading lines are IT enthusiasts. We love everything new and the great Possibilities associated with it. And because we love it, wealso accept changes that go along with it. We can't imagine why others are not enthusiastic about these changes like we are.

But, and this is not only in the Desktop-as-a-Service business in which I operate so, the most users do not share the IT enthusiasm with us. Most users have a relationship with IT about as much as I have a relationship with my tax return. I know it's necessary, I know if I can get it right I benefit from it and I know that even tax returns to develop further. Nevertheless I moan when from one year to the next the tax return suddenly looks completely different to me.

And also the users of IT moan when we IT enthusiasts present them something totally innovative and new. In our business, for example, these are often completely new, supposedly intuitive user interfaces. Applications, buttons and toolbars nicely arranged in the browser. Or access clients with which users can securely access their desktop from anywhere, or what is left of it. It is best to have several different clients for different end devices at the same time, so that every possibility can be exploited.

However, the vast majority of users are simply overwhelmed by this. They don't understand why the desktop looks different in the company than when they access it externally. Why they have to log on to the system with Tool A from their notebook at home and with Tool B from their PC in the company. In my opinion, this should not happen at all. It is our task to remove the complexity for the user from the system. I even go that far and say

User Experience before feature

What good is a great feature set if 90% of users are frustrated due to increased complexity? What good is a Desktop-as-a-Service solution for mobile access if the user then has a new second different interface for it?

The right innovations have to take place (for the user) in secret

A good example for me was the introduction of anti-lock bracking system (ABS). Nothing has changed for the drivers. Brakes as usual, only much better. In my business it is a desktop that looks the same no matter where and with what I access. With all the applications, files and data of the user.

Make ist simple

is the saying I keep dropping like a prayer wheel in our developer meetings. I don't assume that they want to bring complexity into our products, it's rather the "IT nerd factor" that most of our users don't have. Just as I do not accuse any creator of tax forms of an urge for complexity. Here it is me who does not have the "tax nerd factor".