Re: news of the week

On 37khz Claus Dragon shrieked:
Words to the wise, Ashikaga wrote:

Congrats! :-) And since your brother is a user, then you have a very good
feedback source (and a very good chance of making a good software).

And the company does not have test groups and user meetings? I am
going to be a software developer, not doing user support.

Well..., what you are saying is true, but you'll hear from user support
about what they want anyways. Your brother is a user, so take advantage of
that is what I am saying. Not all customers can spend a lot of time nor
have patience to explain to you what kind of problems/issues they have
encountered while using the software you are going to replace.

There
is nothing more annoying than using a software that does not tailor to how
the user thinks.
There are lots of anal stuff one can experience when one
uses such kind of software.

Functionality wins over usability every time.

That's why IE won the browser war. Netscape developers didn't think about
their users nor understand marketing. There are people like my brother who
like their remote controls full of buttons, and there are people like me
who like less buttons (though I still want full functionality, I just don't
like clusters). Undermining different types of users may cost a lot of
$$$.

Even personal finance stuff like Quicken or
accounting software Quickbook, there are lots of weird quirks.

Which is the way accounting works, in my not so humble opinion.

Erm..., I am talking about the software that doesn't work as well as I
like. For example, I can't use standard Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to cut and paste
under Quicken, since those short-cuts were assigned to other things....
It's hell of annoying!

Most often
used options should be put into right-click menue to save time, and should
be placed in a particular order that doesn't require people to get
re-trained for the new software.

And where have you read that?

Periodicals, schools, users, myself. Constantly I hear people complaining
about software people use doesn't work the way people work. It's a subject
teachers like to talk about (well, teachers like to talk about having
standards), coworkers like to complain about. With that kind of stuff in
mind, I frequently test business software while I was working and think
about what kind of improvement it could use. Most users would just curse
the software and forget it. Then there are other people like me who would
switch software when they get enough of it. That's why I mentioned to you
that since you have a brother who happens to use the software, take that
opportunity. Most users can't work that close with you. And when you do
focus groups, since it's usually limited to one session, they can't develop
the software with you and follow-up on the progress (and tell you whether
your improvement is the way they originally thought would be). Yes, it's
hell of annoying, and users change their minds all the time, but it's
better than spend years of development then find out nobody wants it.

Total Quality Management and Supply Chain Management, Six Sigma and
business jargons like that all strive for one thing: fix the problem
/during/ the production process. Otherwise it'll be too late and then
people would have to scrape the whole production line/project. I am pretty
sure managers would get angry about the money wasted, and developers would
get hell of annoyed hearing managers talking about it constantly....

--
Ashikaga a28
.

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