In blogging about Excel I have faced a dilemma: do I teach the user-friendly but impure Excel, or Excel for the initiated?
I am not the savviest Excel guy in the blogging world. I make up for that with broad experience in business economics, data analytics, content marketing, and more.
Some things I do in Excel could be prettier and more efficient. I use a lot of helper cells, avoid long, nested statements, and so forth.
I could figure out how to cram these functions into one cell. But I don’t.
Humans can only hold about seven objects in working memory at a time. Just because the computer can hold more, doesn’t mean you should put it there. Remember, you’re designing for people, not machines.
This is especially the case in Excel, whose purpose is to democratize data analysis.
Focus on pleasing your end user, not some black belt Excel forum dweller.