DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?

A level of challenge that is appropriate to the user’s skill. For some software application designers, this translates as adapting to users and their changing needs. This might mean abandoning the idea of the one giant application that works for everyone.

The range of users out there has broadened significantly over the years. It may be more practical to create multiple versions of an application rather than a single release that adapts to the user’s skill level by reading mouse clicks like they were tea leaves.

A good computer game method of adapting to users is to look the other way when players use cheat codes. Most games have cheat codes that enable players to modify the way a game plays. The multiple forms these cheats take, like "extra lives," "extra ammo," "God mode" – these give the player opportunities to set the challenge of the game themselves, to exactly what they want at any given moment, no questions asked.

Cheat codes are not packaged with the game, but they can be found on the net almost immediately after the game is published, sometimes prior to the official release date. In fact, game publishers put them out there to be found. Game creators would prefer that you experience the game in the manner they intended, but they are sympathetic to the players’ desires. If you feel that a game is too difficult for you, or if you wish to handicap yourself or someone else in a multi-player game, you can use cheat codes to do it.

In tool-like applications the equivalent is manual and/or auto-customization.

Manual customization, for instance, would be the ability of the user to show and hide various toolbars and buttons to suit their needs.

Auto-customization is a relatively new concept in this arena. It works great in video games, but there may just be too many different types of users for that strategy to work for tools.

Only time will tell how software tools will best manage setting the level of "challenge" to match users' skills.