<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- ========================================== kroc camen of camen design ============================================= --> <title>link · “These Things I Believe”</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/design/design.css" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="/link/rss" title="Just link" /> <link rel="canonical" href="/link/these_things_i_believe" /> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <header> <h1><a href="/" rel="index"> Camen Design </a></h1> <nav><ul> <li><a href="/">all</a></li> <li><a href="/projects">projects</a></li> <li><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">forum</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/quote/">quote</a></li> <li><a href="/blog/">blog</a></li> <li><a href="/photo/">photo</a></li> <li><a href="/writing/">writing</a></li> <li><a href="/code/">code</a></li> <li><a href="/art/">art</a></li> <li><a href="/link/" rel="tag">link</a></li> <li><a href="/poem/">poem</a></li> <li><a href="/audio/">audio</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/web-dev/">web-dev</a></li> <li><a href="/annoyances/">annoyances</a></li> <li><a href="/code-is-art/">code-is-art</a></li> <li><a href="/inspiration/">inspiration</a></li> <li><a href="/windows/">windows</a></li> <li><a href="/gaming/">gaming</a></li> <li><a href="/mac/">mac</a></li> <li><a href="/gift/">gift</a></li> <li><a href="/osnews/">osnews</a></li> <li><a href="/c64/">c64</a></li> <li><a href="/linux/">linux</a></li> </ul> <a rel="previous" href="/link/html5-mathml-svg"> older article → </a><a rel="next" href="/link/open_codecs_discussion"> ← newer article </a></nav> </header> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <article><header> <!-- date published or updated --> <time pubdate datetime="2008-07-17T09:51:00+01:00"> <sup>9:51<abbr>am</abbr> • 2008</sup> <abbr title="July">Jul</abbr> 17 </time> <!-- categories --> <ul> <li><a href="/link/these_things_i_believe" rel="bookmark tag">link</a></li> <li><a href="/code-is-art/these_things_i_believe">code-is-art</a></li> <li><a href="/inspiration/these_things_i_believe">inspiration</a></li> </ul> <!-- licence --> <small> <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_GB">c</a> share + remix </small> </header> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> <h1>“These Things I Believe”</h1> <a href="http://jonoscript.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/these-things-i-believe/" rel="external">jonoscript.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/these-things-i-believe/</a> <p> <q><cite>These things I believe</cite></q> is a beautiful <em>mantra</em> of software philosophy.<br /> I agree with everything there.<br /> <br /> Here are some choice quotes: </p> <blockquote> <p> <em>Are users dumb?</em> </p> <ul> <li> <p>When software is hard to use, don’t make excuses for it. Improve it.</p> </li><li> <p> When a user makes a mistake, don’t blame the user.<br /> Ask how the software misled them. Then fix it. </p> </li><li> <p>The user’s time is more valuable than ours. Respect it.</p> </li><li> <p>Good <dfn title="user interface">U.I.</dfn> design is humble.</p> </li> </ul> <cite><a href="http://jonoscript.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/these-things-i-believe/" rel="external">“<cite>These things I believe</cite>”</a></cite> </blockquote> <p> A good software developer defends his work by actions - fixing it, improving it.<br /> A bad software developer places the blame anywhere but on their own head. </p> <blockquote> <p> <em>What is the task of the <dfn title="user interface">U.I.</dfn> designer?</em> </p> <ul> <li> <p> Users do not know what interface they want.<br /> Users do not know what features they want. </p> </li><li> <p>Users know the tasks they want to do, and the problems they have.</p> </li><li> <p>We learn more by watching the user work than by asking the user.</p> </li><li> <p> The job of the <dfn title="user interface">U.I.</dfn> designer is to provide what the users need,<br /> not what the users say they need. </p> </li><li> <p>It is to make tasks easier, not to provide features.</p> </li> </ul> <cite><a href="http://jonoscript.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/these-things-i-believe/" rel="external">“<cite>These things I believe</cite>”</a></cite> </blockquote> <p> And my personal thoughts: </p> <blockquote> <p> If you believe users to be idiots, then you will write idiot-software </p> <cite>Kroc Camen</cite> </blockquote> <p> I would go as far as saying that: </p> <blockquote> <p> With intelligence, you can write good code.<br /> But without philosophy, you cannot create art. </p> <cite>Kroc Camen</cite> </blockquote> <p> It takes love to write beautiful code (and a beautiful <ins>functionally</ins> interface), and there’s not much of that in this technology-world of pent-up, angry, aggressive and indignant geeks. </p> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> </article> <footer> <nav><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">‹ Discuss this in the Forum ›</a></nav> <a href="mailto:kroc@camendesign.com">kroc@camendesign.com</a> <nav>view-source: <a href="/link/these_things_i_believe.rem">Rem</a> • <a href="/link/these_things_i_believe.html">HTML</a> • <a href="/design/">CSS</a> • <a href="/.system/">PHP</a> • <a href="/.htaccess">.htaccess</a> </nav> <form method="get" action="https://duckduckgo.com"> <input type="hidden" name="sites" value="camendesign.com" /> <input type="search" name="q" placeholder="search…" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> </form> </footer> <!-- =================================================================================================== code is art === -->