I find your assertion that the ease/difficulty with which programmers can create GUI screens is somewhat proportional to the number of screens created to be very interesting. It seems a fairly obvious but it had never occured to me before. ++

Also, this reminds me of a rather important learning experience we went through in SW Eng at my company many years ago. We spent a couple of man-years designing and developing a great new application and set of management tools for our hardware product line. It was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. It was loaded with new and innovative ways to setup, manage, report, etc. on the system. We loved it! Everything a "user" could want... or so we thought.

Well, long story short... Not too long after the release, we were puzzled why users were not switching to the "new and improved" software. It was a resounding flop! The users did not want it. Sure, they thought it was slick, clever and cool, etc. but not something they would use on a daily basis. It took them more time to do the old tasks and they were not really interested in the new features that the new process would bring to them.

This may be cliche, but we learned the hard way the perils of living in the "Ivory Tower". Engineers, of which I am one, left to their own devices will at times design and create the most wonderful and amazing products that no one will want or buy!