Silly Preferences

I’m of the opinion that all apps should strive to provide as few user preferences as possible, especially if your preference is for something that’s superfluous and self-aggrandizing, a feature who’s entire raison d’etre is to get in the user’s face. Aka: the splash screen:

Where “Max” == “Yes I’d like this application to freeze on start-up for 10 seconds every time I launch it so I can look at the version number rather than do something useful, like work.”

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “I guess I should provide a way for user’s to disable this feature” the real decision you’re probably trying to make is: “should I cut from my app entirely this feature?”

When it comes to splash screens, the answer is always “yes”. Always.

(That image is from one of the preference panes of an actual Mac app. Fortunately it is not widely used.)