RE: What to call this thing?

Subject: RE: What to call this thing?
From: <Brian -dot- Henderson -at- mitchell1 -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2013 16:12:40 +0000

When it comes to UI design (and the data organization embedded into it) you always have to remember that programmers are "inside the machine, looking out" while users are "outside, looking in". And nary the twain do meet.

I think Hanlon's Razor is an appropriate mention here; Many (if not most) programmers ARE stupid when it comes to understanding what it's like to sit in front of their creations without an intimate understanding of the program/GUI. Nor do hardly any programmers ever actually USE their programs the way that the Great Unwashed would. They can be truly baffled when users claim their baby is "difficult to use" or "unintuitive".

I've worked with enough hackers to realize that for too many, "people" is not a natural talent. I've come to believe that a brain that has an affinity for the inside of a computer, and can also get inside the head of another human is somewhat rare.

It's the same sort of rarity with the tech writers at the company I work for. Most of them are ex-auto mechanics, and it is very difficult to find someone who's naturally good with machinery AND words. We learned long ago to bring in new writers as temps, because we end up having to let most of them go, and pretty quickly. There just seem to be two different (too different) kind of brains required for those tasks.

-Brian H.

-----Original Message----- From: Kevin McLauchlan

Thanks, guys.

That one [more than] covers the landscape. I'm using it.


On a side note, d'ya ever get the impression that some organizations don't WANT you to find your way around their sites?
Or that others are so enamored of their spiffy look-and-feel that they want to trap you into spending as much time as possible gazing upon its magnificence?

--



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References:
RE: What to call this thing?: From: McLauchlan, Kevin

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