Re: A technique to get on development's good side

Subject: Re: A technique to get on development's good side
From: "Poster" <Poster -at- aurora -dot- cotse -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 19:41:45 -0400 (EDT)



Chuck Martin said:
> As one who wears his "usability" heart on his sleeve, I find I cannot
> agree. In fact, I have heard statements by developers long the very
> lines you suggest, not on developer lits, but in meetings and in
> one-on-one conversations, heard from developers, from marketing, even
> from project management. Frequently the sentiment is uttered not so
> much
> along the lines of "screw the user" but of "users are dumb."

I too have heard this theme repeated endlessly by the very people you
mention. It is certainly not a rare event.

>>
>
> Many people involved in product develpoment, while proclaiming their
> predelection for putting users first in the public statements, perform
> predictably counter to that theme in real life. Developers, for
> example,
> are often more interested in getting a feature working than making it
> usable. Product managers are constrained by the strnglehold of
> deadlines, and creating and implementing usable product designs
> usually
> takes more resource than they are willing to commit. Senior management
> answers not to the buying public but to stockholders or VCs, both of
> which have but one goal: return on their investment.
>
> In short, very few people in the chain truly, by their actions, have
> users first in mind.

Exactly. Many people in the chain are short-sighted, focussing only on
what their superiors want to the exclusion of all else. They are
rewarded for that and live only for that -- they have no dreams of
quality. Before anyone comments that this is harsh, rest assured that
it is backed up by lots of personal experience. Mention "quality" in
the workplace and you're often thought of as a dreamer, a threat, a
fool, or all three. Someone must look out for the user. In an ideal
world, it would be everyone in the company, for the responsibility
(another dirty word) belongs to them all. In reality, however, it is
often only the tech writers who care.

~Poster

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