What I've been pondering is the nature of what makes the user interface of some software "industrial" versus "complicated." ~

“The difference I return to again and again isn’t tech depth. It’s constraints.”

"Rough framework I’m using lately:"

Consumer software aims at maximizing joy.

“Enterprise software is all about coordination.”

"Industrial software operates in a environment of the real-world "mess", yet its

"Industrial stuff appears to be more concerned with:

      a.

failure modes

long-term maintenance

predictable behavior vs cleverness

But as soon as software is involved with physical processes, the tolerance for ambiguity narrows quickly.

Curious how others see it:

What’s your mental line between enterprise and industrial? What constraints have affected your designing? “Nice abstractions.” Any instances where these failed the test of reality?