I don't mean to say there is direct cause and effect, but I am pretty sure there is very, very strong correlation: Open Source software generally does not ever really stand out when it comes to Usability or User Experience. If there isn't an already existing commercial thing which has had competition honing it's user interface for the OS folks to copy, then we end up with monstrosities like the original GIMP, or anything related to KDE, or GNOME, or, to wit this evening for me, anything related to trying to stitch up a panoramic photo. (And even when there is something to copy, somehow things get mucked around with enough to make it overall worse, it often seems.)

Of course, whenever anybody attempts to point out all the suck there is some really disturbingly clueless vehement reaction from fan-types claiming that everything is perfectly correct, that everybody should actually want the equivalent of bloody internal guts to vomit out of their computers onto their laps every time they try to Just Get Something Done.

As an erstwhile programmer, I do love me some Open Source! I prefer to run Linux. I pretty much don't trust or really much like the nefariousness or usability of Windows or Mac OS X for use at home, unless it is what I need to get a job done. Not being able to figure out WTF when something is fubar because there's no docs and the thing is closed source is the worst hole to try to dig oneself out of. But my love of FLOSS does not mean I cannot bear witness to the general abomination of i.e. the so-called linux desktops, whichever they are.

Now, I don't want to just complain. I want to know what it is that we as software people can do to make UI and UX something more easy to wrangle. I think fundamentally it is all really hard and so only the people with enough time, which generally means enough money, can ever get around to evolving something that doesn't bare-faced suck. Most of commercial stuff is crap, too! I guess because UI and UX is really bloody hard.

What are the essential complexities of it? Then what are the accidental complexities? I feel like the essential complexities are things like: How much subjectivity there is in usability; The inherent variance in people; The bad training people got using other bad UI memes, getting brainwashed in the process. I feel like the accidental complexities are everything related to software, no matter how wonderful it is purported to be (random e.g. Interface Builder).

Since I am the 2nd type of person, I do not know what the solutions are. I can only point out that we have problems. (The 1st kind of person doesn't see or admit there are problems. The 3rd kind of person can come up with actual possible solutions to experiment with.) So I am doomed to suffer. Ignorance would be blissier.

(The real kicker that tells me humans are frankly idiots when it comes to UI and UX is that even with the much trumpeted and ballyhoo'd touch interface, things! still! suck! C'est de soupirer. Gun in mouth blues.)