We all know that any joke we have to explain is probably not worth telling. To some degree, it is the same thing when it comes to creating a user interface for drilling software. Every developer has his or her own insight on interface designs, and has them all neatly explained for the customers. But if we have to do that much explanation to our software users, we probably have not designed an easy-to-use product.

As computers become faster, information explodes and schedule gets tight; all of us, including drilling professionals, face the challenge to finish more tasks in less time. Software enables us to do so.

Software is the child of both developer and user. However, not all software is born equal. Software developers and users live in separate worlds.  We developers are in our universe of coding and users are in their reality.

To users, software is a tool to make a job done. Their goal is to use software as few times as possible.

To developers, software coding is our mission, to combine our solid professional skills and elaborate interface designs to make sound software. Sometimes, we tend to make things more complicated than necessary. Part of the reason is that it is easy to do so: just by not planning carefully. On the other side, to make a complicated model easy to use is difficult and time-consuming. However, the hours developers put into programming is well worth, because once the difficulty-made-easy tasks are done in a software, it benefits hundreds of users. The benefits multiply as more people start to use software.

Just like a good joke is the one without having to explain, a good software should be so intuitive and easy that a manual is not needed.

So, keep drilling and keep drilling software easy – really easy.