[Sigia-l] Cross-platform software

[Will Parker]

On Sep 30, 2006, at 2:06 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:
>
> I hear MacBU is a swell place:
>
> <http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2006/09/30/777609.aspx>

and...

On Sep 30, 2006, at 6:55 AM, Skot Nelson wrote:
> I actually consider Mac Office quite a good piece of software, all  
> around. It seems to have avoided the pitfalls that the Windows  
> version has fallen into, by and large.

I shouldn't leave the impression that I have a low opinion of the  
MacBU. With a few glaring exceptions, they're highly talented, highly  
motivated people.

In most cases, the shortcomings of Mac Office and all the other MacBU  
products derive from the requirement that the Mac products must look  
and act *enough like* their Windows counterparts that people who  
occasionally must work on a different platform can use the Microsoft  
software they find there.

That means that the scope for radical UxD / IxD differences is quite  
limited. Design changes must come incrementally, and sometimes must  
be put on hold while the WinOffice group makes up its three or four  
hindbrains about which way they're planning to move.

So here's a series of questions for the group:

*******
What do you do when the design constraints on *your* product include  
requirements from a different product group on a different platform?

Which types of design decisions do you abandon? Which types do you  
fight for? If both products are in simultaneous development, how does  
that affect your decision-making process? How does it affect your  
design?

*******

- Will
Will Parker
wparker at channelingdesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier