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“Easy to use,” the hard parts – Unsung
Marcin Wichary · 2026-05-18 · via Unsung

A reader asked me this, and I thought I will answer here:

One bit of challenge with [where I work] is that my audience isn’t already almost-guaranteed to be into design! They’re hopefully interested in making good software in general, though, and probably curious about the app [I’m building] they could be using. I’m also afraid that developers sometimes confuse “easy to use” with “beginner-only, limiting”, which makes it harder to write about streamlining UIs; there’s only so many times you can invoke “reducing mental load.”

I love this question because it gets to the core of why I started this blog. I’m perennially unhappy with the conflation of “craft” with “delight,” and the subsequent narrowing of “delight” into “cute strings and slow animations.” In the famous words of Steve Jobs, “Design is not how it looks. Design is how it works. What’s tricky is that they’re sometimes related, and even if you learn how to tell the difference, your exec team probably never will.”

I am quoting from memory.

Anyway, I hope spending time on Unsung – please like and subscribe – helps with examples of what to talk about and how to talk about them. But, just to list some alternatives to “reduces mental load” for well-made software that come to my mind:

  • is more efficient
  • gets you home earlier
  • will allow you to spend more time on things you enjoy
  • will allow you to choose which parts of the problem to spend time on
  • reduces tedium
  • understands and practices progressive disclosure
  • understands you
  • speaks your language
  • learns your preferences
  • meets you where you are
  • is made by people like you
  • respects you
  • will make you better at what you do
  • rewards mastery
  • doesn’t dumb things down
  • will teach you concepts helpful in other software
  • never takes control away from you
  • is easy to customize
  • adapts to you
  • doesn’t disobey you
  • will make you look good in front of others
  • respects history and legacy of the space
  • is built well
  • is conceptually/​systemically beautiful
  • is well-considered or thoughtful

There’s more, and I am curious what comes to your mind and how you all connect with developers! But maybe just going through a list like this will provoke some ideas.

(Of course, if you cannot honestly claim some of these about software you’re working on, and you think they’re important – I guess you have some work to do.)