I came across the PUBLISHERS’ PAGE OF SHAME which lists books that have fallen apart almost immediately upon release into circulation. If you’ve ever bought a book and had pages fall out half-way through the read, you know what I’m talking about.
For a product to be successful it has to have a good technical underpinning as well as an easy to use exterior. Blogger is easily the simplest blog-tool, and changing tools is painful. yet I’ve moved from one to the next, first leaving Blogger when it became too unstable to be trusted, then moving to MovableType when Greymatter development stood still. Usability is great, but if the tool doesn’t do what you want it to…
But we as customers can make a difference also. Movable Type wasn’t as easy as I wished it was (it’s actually pretty simple to use, but there are quirks) so I contacted the creators and offered to help make it better. And they cared enough to take that offer seriously. I compare it to another friend of mine, a fairly well known usability guy (well, in the geeky usability circles) who has been desperately trying to get the open source movement to accept his offers of help for years….