Do people equate limited as being simple or something else?
I am trying to understand how people decide if a software is simple or not. I am quite often asked for simpler alternatives for 3D software, graphics software, CAD software, mind mapping Software and so on. I am quite often unable to give people a satisfactory answer. But I do keep tabs on what they ended up using.
So far i've come up with 3 basic explanations of simple:
Whatever Bob is using. Where bob is some person they know or wish to emulate. Often Bob is somehow related to the sub field of humanity they relate to.
Software that is extremely limited in amount of features.
Sometimes this makes their task objectively insanely hard.
They complain that the dieted choice isn't simple enough but use it anyway.
So what are the heuristics people in general use to choose simple software? What dot hey use as a proxy? Is it just a presentation issue? I mean quite many software claim to be easy in their marketing material. But dont end up being any easier than other software in general.