[Pdx-pm] "Seems perfectly sensible to me" (was Re: Making web pages that display "working on your request")

Michael G Schwern schwern at pobox.com
Thu Aug 2 17:15:29 PDT 2007


Randal L. Schwartz wrote:
> Seems perfectly sensible to me.

Excuse me while I rant for a moment.

Coder:  Expert programmer with years of experience on the details of web
        development and author of the code in question with detailed knowledge
        of its inner workings and weeks training yourself to its behaviors.

User:   None of the above.


Coder:  Can see inside the black box of how the site works.

User:   Cannot.


Coder:  Idea of how the site works is influenced by how it actually works.

User:   Idea of how the site works is influenced only by the site itself,
        how similar things work and how they want it to work.


The user does not know what you know.

They do not have the knowledge of how the device works.

They do not have prejudices about how the device is supposed to work based on
its internals.

Coders see the inside (how it works) and outside (the interface).

Users only see the outside.

Coders tend to focus on the inside, that's what they work with.

Users can only focus on the interface, that's all they can work with.


Whenever I hear the phrase "seems perfectly sensible to me" come from the
designer I immediately look for where the designer is allowing the ability to
see inside the box influencing their thinking about what is and is not sensible.



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