The Economist had a leader this week about lessons that can be learned from Apple.
One of them in particular rang true for me:
“Apple illustrates the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology. Too many technology firms think that clever innards are enough to sell their products, resulting in gizmos designed by engineers for engineers. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use.”
While many in the tech industry give lip service to “usability” too few put it into practice. And us users, who have few means to push back on bad design, end up having to find “workarounds” to clunky tools.
Read More …
June 13th, 2007
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Kath |
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Well, I don’t have a great excuse, aside from starting a new job.
The other challenge I’m having is that everytime I come in here to write something, I get distracted with “tinkering under the hood” so to speak. There are so many interesting tech-y things about having a website!
I managed to send my mother-in-law some photos of her grandchild. I set up a bulletin board for chatting with friends. I moved files around, installed and uninstalled software.
There really is nothing like tinkering with tech to procrastinate!
June 5th, 2007
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Kath |
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I recently heard part of a program on CBC Radio’s show Ideas. It was called “By Design: The Politics of Everyday Objects” and the website description is thus: We tend to take the objects around us, from paper clips to bridges, for granted, remarking only when they’re either annoying to use, or impossibly elegant. Why do everyday objects look the way they do, and why are we so often saddled with clunky, ugly things? Read More …
January 30th, 2007
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Kath |
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There are two users of software (so the saying goes): those who when something goes wrong blame themselves and those who blame the program. While this does over generalize a bit I’ve witnessed it in action. It’s not just experience that differentiates the two types: I think some tech users have a kind of intuitive way of interacting with it. And this intuition cannot be taught.
To the case study! My mother has been using a computer for longer than I have. She had one for her business accounting back when you needed to know DOS, well before the WYSIWYG word processor. Yet, she remains to this day remarkably unintuitive with her computer. Read More …
October 27th, 2006
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Kath |
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A friend of mine recently told me about a blog she’d started to discuss VoIP. When I tried to search for it I was amazed to discover she was near the top of Google’s list. She felt that there was a need for a woman’s point of view on the VoIP technology and obviously she was correct.
”You should try this, Kath,” she told me. “This is your medium.”
I had never before considered creating a blog. The blogs I have read (admittedly, a very few of the many available) have either been shocking, distressingly personal, or dull. But before I dismissed the idea entirely, I remembered one I’d seen recently about creating passionate users of software.
The authors of that blog were speaking my language. Which is what? Although I work in a technical field, I’m neither an IT expert nor a programmer. I speak for the users of the software we build and it is sometimes a lonely position.
I love tech. I love new toys that are technical. I’m fascinated by how things are designed and angered when design is not well done. And I love words and writing. Maybe my friend was right about this being my medium.
I’ll do my best not to be shocking, distressingly personal, or dull.
October 9th, 2006
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Kath |
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