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The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

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Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#61

Post by amutap »

tomjen2 wrote: post #55
edw519 wrote: post #9

Hacker's Corollary: "The Most Important Programming Lesson I Ever Learned" Nobody wants to run your shit. Make it simple. Make it easy. Make it fun (to the extent that you can). Make it intuitive. Make it do exactly what needs to be done. Your user is too busy for anything else.

Please don't make it intuitive, I know everybody says it should be but that assumes that all software is made to please the casual user. The best software is made to please the expert user, and makes them many times more powerful that the average user.

I find this argument completely incorrect... Was Google made for expert users? Were ipods made for expert users? Providing an interface which allows users to accomplish a complex task and in the process users know what they are doing is the essence of the whole ui.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#62

Post by dkersten »

tomjen2 wrote: post #55
edw519 wrote: post #9

Hacker's Corollary: "The Most Important Programming Lesson I Ever Learned" Nobody wants to run your shit. Make it simple. Make it easy. Make it fun (to the extent that you can). Make it intuitive. Make it do exactly what needs to be done. Your user is too busy for anything else.

Please don't make it intuitive, I know everybody says it should be but that assumes that all software is made to please the casual user. The best software is made to please the expert user, and makes them many times more powerful that the average user.

The expert user was a casual or novice user once too...

If I find something unintuitive, then I will avoid using it. If I find something intuitive, then, provided its s\for a task I need to do, I willo use it and become an "expert user". I think software needs to be intuitive (or, more importantly, intuitive to the target user), yet still cater for the expert power user by providing shortcuts/macros/scripts/keyboard commands/advanced features etc.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#63

Post by raquo »

tomjen2 wrote: post #55
edw519 wrote: post #9

Hacker's Corollary: "The Most Important Programming Lesson I Ever Learned" Nobody wants to run your shit. Make it simple. Make it easy. Make it fun (to the extent that you can). Make it intuitive. Make it do exactly what needs to be done. Your user is too busy for anything else.

Please don't make it intuitive, I know everybody says it should be but that assumes that all software is made to please the casual user. The best software is made to please the expert user, and makes them many times more powerful that the average user.

First, it's not necessarily a tradeoff.

Second, it should be intuitive to your target audience, be they experts or casual users.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#64

Post by MaysonL »

wallflower wrote: post #60
modoc wrote: post #30

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott is an amazing book about writing. It's funny, very helpful, inspiring, etc... http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp...

Repost but Elizabeth Gilbert wrote the best treatise on writing (and by extension, creative expression) I think I've ever read. Here are some excerpts - I believe its worthwile reading the entire essay many times: "I often hear people say, 'I’m not good enough yet to be published.' That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents. They all employ young…

Robert Heinlein's "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction" ranks pretty highly up there. Starts off with the old Kipling quote:

  There are nine and sixty ways
  Of constructing tribal lays
  And every single one of them is right!
and ends up with his rules (which he describes as "business habit")

1. You must write.

2. You must finish what you write.

3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.

4. You must put it on the market.

5. You must keep it on the market until it sells.

I refrain from posting the Google Books link to the essay: it's much too long, and so is left as an exercise for the reader.

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