[Sigia-l] "Social Interface"

[Michal Migurski]

> > A good read, haven't seen it posted here just yet:
> > 	http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/NotJustUsability.html
> >
> [...]
> > The best UI in the world won't save software with an awkward social
> > interface."
>
> It is indeed an interesting read. However, the article's perspective
> on what social interface is seems to be very different from others.

This is true - I don't think that Joel is fully clued into the current IA
literature. Neither am I, for that matter. However, the article did serve
as an excellent reminder of the crucially important point that as software
is used to mediate interactions between people, a good interface does no
good unless the idea behind it - the need, the business case, the itch -
is real.

On of the creators of Flickr put it another way in a quick critique of 37
Signals' new feature checklist:

	http://bizwerk.blogspot.com/2004/08/for-every-new-feature-you-need-to.html

	"But if we had actually followed i.e. steps 1, 2 and 3 and tried
	to figure out in advance if features were worthy, Flickr would not
	exist at all. "

Personally I find it interesting that Joel talks about human-human
interaction in contrast to CHI, since I've been thinking a lot lately
about the opposite, computer-computer interaction, in the context of
information feeds and automated communications. It doesn't help that I'm
reading a bunch of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels right now, either.

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