Designers on Joel

Dietrich Kappe, Thursday, April 6, 2006 @ 8:19 pm

Apparently we weren't the only ones to notice Joel Spolsky's rather empty observation on usability. John S. Rhodes over at WebWord also takes issue. He puts it very succinctly:

If a software product is meant for thousands of users, exactly who is expecting exactly what?

Indeed. I'd go a step further and say that what even one user expects from an application may change over time. For one, they may appreciate an application that provides training wheels early on and prefer one that lets them get down and dirty as they become experienced in the application's domain.

Maybe it's easy writing usable software if, like Joel, you stick to bug tracking software and the like. Come out into the real world and deal with non-technologists and you may get a rude reception.

user experience design

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