As promised, I'm back with more analogies to chemistry and physics. If you enjoyed yesterday's post, you're in for a treat. If not, this post is completely different.
I wanted to start off my blogging with a few thoughts on my interpretation of a popular theme of this blog: the value and costs associated with change.
I have an annoying habit of evangelizing certain technologies to just about anyone I talk with. One of the most common programs I recommend is Chrome, a relatively new web browser from Google.
Here at Less Annoying Software, we're big fans of Software as a Service (SaaS).
One of the most interesting things I've read is that Windows 7 is slightly faster than Vista, but in usability tests, users thought that it was much faster.
As soon as you build up a respectable user base, that all changes. Once your users rely on your software to perform a task, it's important to make sure that you don't disrupt that.
I spend a fair amount of time looking over people's shoulders while instructing them on how to do various things on their computers. Of all the ways in which many people could improve their productivity, I think learning basic hotkeys would probably lead to the most noticeable results.
The end goal for any smart software developer is to create something that the users enjoy. It matters little what the software does as long as people like using it.
Have you ever done a quick Google search before buying a product to check out how other people feel? Doesn't it seem odd how overwhelmingly negative the comments generally are?
Today's topic is probably the #1 reason a lot of software sucks: inertia.
One of the keys to staying successful if you work with technology is the ability to predict what tools people will need in the future before anyone else does.
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