Busy. Simple is in the eyes of the beholder.

I've been busy.  Busy working on a client application.  Busy taking care of the family.  Busy supporting my wife who has a "touch of cancer".  Seriously: it was a small lump, it is now gone, and a little radiation therapy should make sure it never returns.  Discovery, biopsy, diagnosis, surgery all in about 3 weeks.  That'll keep you busy.

On that client application I really tried to simplify a repetitive task by asking the user to only do it once.  Then we'd let the smart computer remember that once and re-use the information when needed.  Smart?

Sort of.  Conceptually it was "elegant" I suppose.  However, it was way too different from the user's mental model to be of much usefulness.  So we went back to the old "inefficient" way that makes sense and doesn't confuse anyone.  Since the task was an infrequent one (once a year) I probably should have left it alone.

However, since the application will be used every year, the real benefit will be designing the "re-use" process so that it re-uses what is good and provides an easy and efficient way for the customer to edit and update the information.  That's the part we really need to simplify and get right.

I'm still busy. Too busy to write.