Real World API

I was reading an article about design when I came across this statement

“ ...The top user request is often ‘export to excel’.... Excel empowers the user to do ‘out of the box’ actions. It is the API to the real world.

how true. We spend our time designing all sorts of export interfaces with complex XML, etc. when all the end user wants is a comma delimited file (CSV) that they can import into Excel. We have even had to provide utilities which take the XML we produce and convert it for those users who don't have the resources to design on themselves.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the best.