Recently we spent a bit of time developing the Gigantiq web site. We plan that the content will change frequently and decided that we really need a reasonable Content Management System. Since our hosting company already had built-in support for Joomla which seemed to offer most of the features that we were looking for, it was the logical choice.

As far as a feature set goes, it has lived up to our expectations. In fact it can do a lot more than we actually need. Using an application that has more features than you are ever going to use is not normally a problem unless it means that the simple, common tasks become more difficult as a consequence. Joomla is a classic example of how some simple features in an application can become quite difficult to use as an application grows to be a generic “all things to everyone”.

It is a true art to be able to develop software that keeps the simple things simple and makes complex tasks simple. In most cases the simple things become complex and the complex tasks stay complex. This has certainly been my experience with Joomla.

I think that much of this complexity stems from the “you can do everything from our interface” mentality that many applications seem to adopt. More applications should offer alternative user interfaces to target different types of users. A better approach is to have a simple user interface that targets the 80% of users who will only use the most common features, but the ability to turn on a more advanced user interface to access the more esoteric features of an application. It would be better to offer wizards that make the more complex common tasks simpler.

Perhaps if Joomla had followed some of these ideas then it would not have taken me an hour or more to add my first menu item to the site.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that I have Joomla as a free CMS, I only wish it offered a simple approach to performing simple tasks. Feel free to bag us at Gigantiq if we forget this simple rule in our own software.