> It's easy to sign up for Twitter, it follows all of your expectations of how apps work.
Although it's probably too late, and not the place, to fight this particular battle, this kind of resigned circularity frustrates me. The reason the apps from big companies all "follow your expectations of how apps work" is not that they have reached some Platonic ideal of according with user expectations; it is that they have the time, the money, and the muscle (in the sense of being able to force you to use their apps to use their big product, whether you want to or not) to shape your expectations of how apps work. Their apps work as we expect apps to work because their apps defined how we expect apps to work.
Although it's probably too late, and not the place, to fight this particular battle, this kind of resigned circularity frustrates me. The reason the apps from big companies all "follow your expectations of how apps work" is not that they have reached some Platonic ideal of according with user expectations; it is that they have the time, the money, and the muscle (in the sense of being able to force you to use their apps to use their big product, whether you want to or not) to shape your expectations of how apps work. Their apps work as we expect apps to work because their apps defined how we expect apps to work.