[Sigia-l] Salt in Sugar

[Ziya Oz]

James Aylett:

> Why? 

When I start a project with a new client (in enterprise), one of the first
things I do is this: I collect about a dozen screenshots of their own
application(s) and project them on a screen. One by one and slowly, without
words. Then I ask them (all well-paid businessmen or tech managers) if they
ever go to movies, look at TV, watch commercials, visit a museum, shop at a
mall, eat at a decent restaurant, etc., while projecting slides of well
designed, high production-value specimens.

The contrast is unmistakable.

I ask them how much time they spend in front of these apps vs. how much time
they actually get to spend with their own kids. (I'll go to any length to
make a design point.)

Finally, I ask them if they stop being human beings when they step into
their workplace.

Message: it doesn't have to be this way!

Then, I drop the subject after that because the message sinks in a cerebral
way. I have an unspoken frame of reference for later discussion/evaluation.

Believe it or not, I still think developers are human too. And they should
be treated as such. Many developers use iPods, eat better cheese, drive
better cars, sit on more comfortable chairs, etc. Why do (some) developers
think other developers deserve nothing but the barest, most obtuse treatment
when it comes to the tools they use many hours a day? Why do they think it's
OK to waste others' time with shameful disregard when installing/configuring
stuff? Why is it OK to treat admin tools as third class afterthoughts? Why
is it permissible to pretend these developers don't otherwise have a life
and they go to movies and watch TV commercials, etc?

Well, you might say, that's just the way it is. It's always been that way.
They are all masochistic inside. I don't buy that. I think stock brokers,
enterprise workers, developers, business people and shipping clerks are all
deserving of more attention, more care and better design. As much as any
"consumer". Why not?

Why shouldn't developers (and all the other "non-consumers" I mentioned) be
given as much attention as Steve Jobs' team lavished on consumers with the
iPhone today? 

Where's the love? :-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba