Simplicity, sophistication, oversimplification, and At Ease.

I rant about the usability of modern Apple software, Steven Levy rants about the complexity of the Mac and the oversimplified environment provided by At Ease, and Josef Morell rants about the damage At Ease does to first impressions of the Macintosh in retail channels.

Original text by Steven Levy, Macworld December 1992 and Josef Morell, MacFormat March 1995.

datagubbe.se laments the usability of modern desktop computer software.

Product manager for At Ease, Dave Pakman, demonstrates At Ease for a user group in ~1992. Bruce Tognazzini on the user-centered design philosophy of the Macintosh. R.I.P. (The philosophy, not Bruce.) Thanks as always to the Unofficial Apple VHS Archive for both of these.

Phrases I never expected to learn while producing a computer history podcast: “spoiling the ship for a hap’orth of tar” (pronunciation).

You definitely need to install the Talking Moose on your old Mac right now and/or Uli’s Moose on your Mac OS X 10.1-10.7 machines.