>I'd disagree with that. People build wild shit in Excel that only they can understand. It makes sense to them because they built it. Nobody else can use it.

I think the parent comment is talking about using excel as a grid based layout tool to show how they want the app to look, not implying that you should build GUIs based upon the convoluted stuff people build in excel to avoid having a dedicated app.

>thoughtful design by someone who understands what makes a good GUI and what the goals of the interface are from the user's perspective.

This is critically overlooked too many times.

>People build wild shit in Excel that only they can understand.

I resemble that remark ;)

In one respect, that's what excel is really helpful for.

With no other GUI, the default of a mouse on an electronic spreadsheet is one of the oldest and most familiar to those who need wild math to be accomplished immediately without delay, in spite of its drawbacks. And quite popular, most likely by "default".

Remember before they had a gooey all they had was an ooie.

Should have seen what it was like before people had a mouse ;)

How about back when almost all prospective users wanted computerized calculation abilities, but computers were so uncommon none of them had ever used a computer (other than a first-generation game console), yet. They were of course well aware of what computers could do but wouldn't be actually touching one until sometime in the (very near) future.

They were looking forward to it which was a good sign, but when you handed one to them, the ideal situation was if they could simply be directed to the power button on the device. Everything else needs to logically follow and be completely intuitive to those familiar with the domain, with no further guidance or support from the author. Budding operators who were absolutely computer illiterate must be able to get it right the first time. Would you settle for anything less when it's somewhat confusing industrial high-stakes computation under the hood?

That's just text but when you think about it, even the most complex logic & code might benefit from first making sure it can be well-navigated from a text-based UI, before adding the desktop & mouse to complete the "picture".

Remember, a text-based UI must ask the right questions, or there will be no correct response.

Any other UI which doesn't ask the same questions in one way or another, is unlikely to provide the same correct response.

> People build wild shit in Excel that only they can understand.

If these people are the customer, then a wild shit xlsx file is perhaps one of the better possible scenarios for requirements gathering.

I've been in this exact situation. Client provides their current workflow, implemented in a spreadsheet.

The problem is they make significant concessions in their design to fit the tabular model of spreadsheets. It can be really warping, not only to GUI but also the underlying data model. Then you show them what a relational data model is capable of, and (hopefully) blow their mind.

When you get to relational models, the amount of UI you can quickly build around the django admin is staggering... if you stay in the guardrails.