The Usability of Everything
A book is a tool, a pen is a tool, Wordpress is a tool: for entertainment, for remembering, for communicating with words.
A knife is a tool, an oven is a tool, a sous vide machine is a tool: for cutting, for baking, for precisely heating food.
A yoga mat is a tool, a dumbbell is a tool, running shoes are a tool: for exercising and stress relief.
A job is a tool: for earning money to pay rent, for structuring your time and helping you feel useful. Maybe even for improving the lives of other people.
The usability of tools can be observed and evaluated. (Feel free to substitute the word “system” or “organization” for the word “tool” if it helps.) Can you get the tool set up and ready to use? Can you perform some simple tasks with the tool that it was designed for? How many mistakes do you make with the tool the first time you use it? After reading the instructions? After using it the second time? Can you achieve your goals with the tool? Can you clean and maintain the tool? Do you sometimes inadvertently hurt yourself or others with the tool?
The skillful use of tools can be improved over time with attention and practice–even bad ones. But that doesn’t excuse bad design.
We’ve advanced far enough that we shouldn’t need to tolerate bad tools anymore. There are a lot of Point of Sale systems, but some work really well and others suck to use. There are somehow still bad websites. We’ve had examples of good websites for 20 years now. We know what they look like, how they work and who makes them—there’s no Earthly reason to put up with having a bad website any more.
A bad website, a bad pair of running shoes, a bad knife, a bad organization: the existence of these things mean that the responsible parties simply don’t care enough to even just copy something that’s already good. It means that actually using the tool wasn’t important; simply selling or having the tool was more important.
If you regularly find yourself, while engaged in earnest effort, thinking, “Why is this so mind-bendingly stupid?” it’s time to: a) get a different tool, or b) modify it for your use. And if you don’t know what a good one—a useable one—looks like then get curious and look around. Maybe you’ll even be in a position to make one that’s already good even better.