Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I like uniformity. Expectations are met, there are few surprises, and yes at times it is boring. The boring parts are become more prevalent. I could use a little more variety and more choice these days.

When I was a kid I discovered K-Mart. It was wonderful. It didn’t matter which K-Mart store I entered in my home town or in other towns. The sporting goods were in the same place, the pets were in the same place, and the toys were in the same place. That was neat.

Okay, I was just a kid and I had noticed the charm of the national chain business. Burger King had the same concept – the same layout, the same menu. McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken – all the same. Uniformity, consistency, all soothing concepts to me.

Local color? Variety? Not really important to me as a kid. Give me the security of knowing where to find things. There was variety out there. There were plenty of locally owned stores, hamburger places, pizza places, and the like. I guess I didn’t notice them because they were still the norm, not the exception.

Today we are upside down from my childhood. In Reston, Virginia the only restaurants that are not national chains are Chinese fast food places. All the stores are national chains. I can shop them here, San Jose, California or Melbourne, Florida. All the same. Perfect uniformity, no variety, no choice.

I guess most people prefer what I preferred as a kid. Look at government. Most Americans want the Federal government to make all services the same regardless of state. National norms for education, health care – no variety, no choice.

I am also an engineer – a designer of sorts. MS Windows, Apple OS X, the various Linux desktops. All use uniform WIMP interfaces (Windows, Icons, Menu, Pointing device). No variety, no choice.

Apple broke the uniformity with the iPod and its user interface. Everyone else copied that, and we are back to no variety, no choice.

Please, some engineer out their – design something different. Introduce variety and choice back into our lives.