You've written that so well that I don't feel I can add much of value.
It does remind me of a book that greatly changed my view of my role as a programmer/developer. That book is:
Programming as if People Mattered: Friendly Programs, Software Engineering, and Other Noble Delusions - by Nathaniel S. Borenstein press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove...
In reaching into my shelves to pull out my copy I see that I left the purchase receipt inside it - the date on it is 5th Oct 1996. So, in a way it's a scary thought that perhaps so little has changed in all that time. In truth, I should re-read the book in case I'm romanticising its value from across the years (yikes: decades).
Still, I'm very pleased that you wrote the following: "Our users were very familiar with the data, so at first we assumed our interface wouldn't have to focus on explaining the data to them."
These days I mainly code for myself and other data analysts rather than end users, but the problem is essentially still the same - on exactly that point. Heck, it's even true for myself when after a few years absence I go to use some clever feature in a tool I created myself. If I haven't made the interface clear enough, then I find I have to re-dive under the hood to work out how to make use of it again.
Clearly I understood the data/context when I desired the featured and then implemented it. The only excuse for that no longer being clear is the interface design I did then - and have then returned to find (almost like an archaeologist).
So anyway, that's a long way to say thank you for writing that piece and reminding us that we can all still try to do better.
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You've written that so well that I don't feel I can add much of value.
It does remind me of a book that greatly changed my view of my role as a programmer/developer. That book is:
Programming as if People Mattered: Friendly Programs, Software Engineering, and Other Noble Delusions - by Nathaniel S. Borenstein
press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove...
In reaching into my shelves to pull out my copy I see that I left the purchase receipt inside it - the date on it is 5th Oct 1996. So, in a way it's a scary thought that perhaps so little has changed in all that time. In truth, I should re-read the book in case I'm romanticising its value from across the years (yikes: decades).
Still, I'm very pleased that you wrote the following: "Our users were very familiar with the data, so at first we assumed our interface wouldn't have to focus on explaining the data to them."
These days I mainly code for myself and other data analysts rather than end users, but the problem is essentially still the same - on exactly that point. Heck, it's even true for myself when after a few years absence I go to use some clever feature in a tool I created myself. If I haven't made the interface clear enough, then I find I have to re-dive under the hood to work out how to make use of it again.
Clearly I understood the data/context when I desired the featured and then implemented it. The only excuse for that no longer being clear is the interface design I did then - and have then returned to find (almost like an archaeologist).
So anyway, that's a long way to say thank you for writing that piece and reminding us that we can all still try to do better.