I think you need to sit down next to those "bozos" for a day or two and see their actual workflow. I've seen and worked closely with people using Excel instead of databases; hell, myself I used it as a map editor for a 2D game (for page layout I prefer PowerPoint).
The reason Excel is so popular is not because non-coders are dumb. It's because "tools" provided by IT department are usually piece of crap that makes work more difficult for people using them. Take using Excel instead of databases - why spreadsheet is better? Because it has easier data entry, and it's free-form. When you need to modify your workflow to include some additional notes, you don't have to write to the manager of the manager of the internal procedures to maybe consider updating the schema somewhen before next decade. You just add a new column and you're done.
I'm sure when someone creates a program that actually solves the problems those people encounter every day, they'll gladly switch to using it. But it's easier to say that users are stupid instead of actually caring about what their needs are.
I don't think the users of spreadsheets are dumb. I think they don't have an appreciation for organization of data to allow for efficient machine-readability. Your use of a spreadsheet as a game editor shows that you're one of the exceptions that proves the rule.
The free-form nature of spreadsheets, in my experience, almost always makes for human readable repositories of data that are nearlyuseless from an automated processing perspective. I cringe when I'm asked to export data from a database into a spreadsheet for users to edit, because I know I'm going to get back an unparsable mess that I'm going to have to invest time in to make usable again.
The spreadsheet is, effectively, shifting the user's inability to understand why data needs to be organized well off to a programmer (or some other grunt) who ends up fixing all the data up. (Or, alternatively, nobody fixes it up and the business ends up making bad decisions based on garbage data that came from a spreadsheet that's a disorganized mess.)
> I don't think the users of spreadsheets are dumb. I think they don't have an appreciation for organization of data to allow for efficient machine-readability.
Well said...it's that concept of machine-readability that is so core to efficient data investigation and interoperability with other enterprises (such as web apps)...theoretically, such a concept is learnable without a decent jump into the computer science/programming waters...but honestly, I haven't run into many lay persons who have figured it out well enough for themselves.
I would say that Excel is more a writing environment rather than a reading environment, the problem is not with Excel itself, it's just there is always a lack of validation, consistency and proper backups / history with Excel. So people just jump on it because it's simple to use and just make sense but the problem is that they don't see the broader picture and how the things they are actually creating are going to be used in the future (and if they can).
And considering that even running some CRUD app framework like Rails or Django is verboten in many corporate environments, Excel (or Access, but even that seems to be getting rarer) is simply the most powerful tool available to most people at work.
The reason Excel is so popular is not because non-coders are dumb. It's because "tools" provided by IT department are usually piece of crap that makes work more difficult for people using them. Take using Excel instead of databases - why spreadsheet is better? Because it has easier data entry, and it's free-form. When you need to modify your workflow to include some additional notes, you don't have to write to the manager of the manager of the internal procedures to maybe consider updating the schema somewhen before next decade. You just add a new column and you're done.
I'm sure when someone creates a program that actually solves the problems those people encounter every day, they'll gladly switch to using it. But it's easier to say that users are stupid instead of actually caring about what their needs are.