In his new book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr relates an experiment by Christof van Nimwegen on computer-human interaction. Users were asked to solve a puzzle using software. Some users were given software designed to be very helpful, highlighting permissible moves etc. Other users were given bare-bones software.

In the early stages of solving the puzzle, the group using the helpful software made correct moves more quickly than the other group, as would be expected. But as the test proceeded, the proficiency of the group using the bare-bones software increased more rapidly. In the end, those using the unhelpful program were able to solve the puzzle more quickly and with fewer wrong moves.

I immediately thought of the debate over fancy software development tools versus simple tools. Then I read the conclusion:

… those using the unhelpful software were better able to plan ahead and plot strategy, while those using the helpful software tending to rely on simple trial and error. Often, in fact, those with the helpful software were found “to aimlessly click around” as they tried to crack the puzzle.

That really sounds like software development.

Christof van Nimwegen did variations on his experiment and got similar results. For example, he had two groups schedule a complicated series of meetings. One group had plain calendar software and one had software designed to help people schedule complicated meetings. The folks with the simple software won.

The debate over whether to use fancy software development tools (e.g. integrated development environments, wizards, etc.) or simple tools (editors and make files) is a Ford-Chevy argument that won’t go away. I could imagine many valid objections to the applicability of the van Nimwegen studies to the software tools debate, but I’d say they score a point for the simple tools side.

A rebuttal to the van Nimwegan studies is that he has only shown that particular helpful software wasn’t particularly helpful. Maybe the specific puzzle-solving software didn’t help in the long run, but someone could have written software that was ultimately more helpful than the bare-bones software. Maybe someone could have written scheduling software that allows people to schedule tasks faster than using simple calendar software.

A rebuttal to the rebuttal is that someone might indeed write software that allows users get the job done more quickly than they would using simpler software. It may even be inevitable that someone will write such software eventually. However, most attempts fail. It’s hard to write genuinely helpful software. Attempts to help a user too much may interfere with the user’s ability to form a good mental model of the problem.

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