How to Ruin a Useful Product
by Miki Saxon
Typically, I don’t use this space to vent my personal rage, but I am today and the focus is Skype.
I’m also ranting late in the game, since the cause of my rant happened summer of 2017.
I kept hoping they’d fix it, which just goes to show what happens when optimism overrules common sense and experience.
It used to be great, but the ground up redesign…stinks is the most polite term I can think of.
Of course, it’s not just me, look at the 295 reviews at Consumer Affairs or The Verge article (or dozens of others), but all I read talked about their using it on their phones.
I use Skype chat on my laptop daily to work with colleagues in Russia. It’s business, not social.
I wondered why (I always wonder ‘why’.) Microsoft so totally screwed it up.
I found the answer in the Digital Journal.
As set out by The Next Web, the bulk of the criticism lies in the decision to reinvent Skype as a social-first app. Skype’s old focus on chats, calls and professional communication has been dropped in favour of building an all-out Snapchat clone for younger users.
No wonder I didn’t understand. I’ve never used Snapchat and certainly don’t qualify as a “younger user.”
Sadly, none of the updates since then have fixed anything.
You would think Microsoft would have at least some respect for their business users.
The reasoning and the action is what I would have expected from Steve Ballmer, but not from Satya Nadella.
If nothing else, you’d think they might, at least, have heard the adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Image credit: Logoworks
