Competing on easy

My first job out of Uni required me to write up little manuals, take them to the customer to show them how to upload products to their e-commerce site, check orders etc.

I'm not a programmer, but I'm fairly technical.

Anyway, actually sitting beside the user as they tried to do things makes you realize how important easy really is. This was using basically off-the-shelf software that I thought was pretty user friendly. But, anything outside of the manual and instruction could not be/was not done.

It isn't really about easy-hard. It's about possible-impossible. There was some Jobs interview somewhere where he described the early (then current) Apple/microcomputer progression in orders of magnitude.

people who could build their own computer from parts >> people who could build it from kits >> people who could write their own software on pre-assembled computers >> people who could use other people's software >> people who could use a GUI-based computer.

You could continue this line to ipad apps. How many people use computers but don't install software (daughters, IT departments, etc do this once per year)? How many use email that someone sets up for them?

This does not add anything to the conversation about the article.

Though this doesn't totally solve your issue, the design is responsive, so if you're on your Mac, you could narrow your browser window to make the body text a little easier to scan. I mean, you shouldn't need to do that, but...

Interesting, totally opposite for me. The text-indent is what demarcates the paragraphs and I found that really readable. Also Safari's reader mode also uses a serif font, for me anyway.

I didn't even notice the serif font, because I have overridden the font-family in almost all places to the Ubuntu font-family (hooray for user style sheets!). I tried it as an experiment somewhere around a year ago. I strike the occasional website that doesn't look right and where it looks like the typeface used may have damaged it, but overall, it's marvellous. I noticed very quickly that the whole web was prettier and more readable. I tried going back, just out of curiosity, a month or two later. I went back to overriding the font-family less than a week later.

But as far as their layout is concerned, I do like the large typography, and don't see any problem with the paragraph spacing and layout. Overall, it's a nice, clean layout.

They're 37 Signals, creators of Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, and other fine things that may claim to solve a certain task 'easier' than other competitors.

37 Signals generally create web apps for small businesses, so I suspect an email client/service would be a little too general for them. Jason Fried also says, "This new product eliminates the hassle of one thing in particular", which suggests that there's one huge pain point they'd like to solve with their new product. I can't think of what one particular pain point would be with email - a solution to email would probably involve solving a lot of tiny problems.

It's puzzling, because Jason points out that "the other products are totally free". Most web apps marketed to small business users, though, aren't free. Perhaps this product is targeted at a broader demographic.

I reckon it is a timing app

Yes, and it's what Apple under Jobs has always done - they made it easy to use (where easy can mean: easy on the eyes, easy to perform tasks with, easy to buy, easy to turn off,...). And yes, it does not mean anti-complex, at least not for the iPhone - take a look into the settings screen, it's become quite huge by now.

I'm not trying to come off as negative, but did you ever stop to wonder if you're making things more complicated than they actually are?

This is a great summary of "Rework". It felt like eating cotton candy - too quick and short on substance when the sugar high fades.

I definitely see that. To be honest, I really enjoyed how tersely presented the ideas are. They make a great jumping off point for your own internal discussion and creative modification.