[Sigia-l] Open Source Usability -- curable?

[Listera]

Peter Trudelle:

> Programmers are in a powerful position, especially in OSS, and they know it.

Not just in OSS, in the enterprise world as well. So far they've run the
show and the business owners have let them.

There are, however, a few countervailing trends:

The "value" of programmers who don't do design/architecture is going down,
to the point of commoditization. While this may swell the ranks of OSS
developers :-), it will nevertheless peg down their perceived importance.

Prototyping tools and dynamic/scripting languages continue to improve,
allowing business analysts, designers, etc to need programmers less and less
to get concepts, designs, architectures out into process.

Off-shoring is shifting business competition from backend development to
frontend expertise in UI/UX. With the backend being commoditized (and
server/bandwidth/storage prices plummeting), the battle shifts to who can
get the user experience right.

Though nowhere near being even adequate, people are beginning to pay
attention to app/device interfaces: (when freed from the Microsoft
chokehold) people prefer well designed stuff whether it's iPod, iTunes,
Google, TiVo or some snazzy cell phone. Hopefully this will elevate the
notion of good interface advantages.

----
Ziya

When 2+2=4, it's development,
When 2+2>4, it's design.