Doing the Work
Or, Amy Pretends You Care About Interface
Deisgn (But Not Really)

Amy
Ruby & JavaScript Developer

Amy
Teacher of Programming

Amy

Amy
Crusader for Cheerful Software

Wait—
"Cheerful Software?"

Wait—
"Cheerful Software?"
Are we hot-shot software developers or are we
kindergarten teachers?

Software should be
like a great concierge.

Software should be
like a great concierge.
Always there when you need it, doing things
for you before you knew you needed them
done, hovering in the background, ready to
spring into action. Deferent, but not a brown-
noser. And looking great in a 3-piece suit.

If software
development was
Magnum PI...

Magnum
the car
the smirk
the chest hair
the girls
the TV show
the goofy charm

Higgins
the resources
the control / power
the connections
the snarky jokes
the (awesome) accent
the style

If software
development was
Magnum PI...

End User

End User
Developer

Magnum
the car
the smirk
the chest hair
the girls
the TV show
the goofy charm

knows kung-fu

knows kung-fu
saves Magnum's ass

knows kung-fu
saves Magnum's ass
makes Magnum possible

If software
development were a
seesaw...

Developer End User

Developer End User

Seesaws
have a fulcrum (point of leverage)
go up
go down
require teamwork
and equal effort
fun?

Effort

Effort

Effort
Effort

Weeee!

Weeee!
Weeee!

And nothing says "good karma,
happy users, and profit" like end
users saying...
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee!

Developer End User
So, what's this here point of leverage?

Developer End User
Code!

Developer End User
Code!
(Specifically: commitment & effort)

Code!
Going the extra mile so the
user doesn't have to...

Going the extra mile...
accepting many types of input
formatting data & error recovery
pre-finding what's useful
avoiding configuration
integrating with other services
syncing
elimination of repetition

Going the extra mile...
g !
in
accepting many types of input
y
n o
formatting data & error n
a recovery
nd
A
!
pre-finding what's useful
selection workG
I N
R
integration
-
O
syncing
B
reduction of repetition

If software
development were a
mathematical
problem...

1x Developer 16x End Users

1 hour - 15 minutes
x 1 developer x 16 end users

1 hour in 4 hours out
developer end users

Going the extra mile so the user
doesn't have to...

Spotting potential points of
powerful leverage

Spotting potential points of
powerful leverage
... and pushing

Developer End User

Developer End User
effort required

Developer End User
effort required
Balanced

Developer End User
effort required
High Effort Balanced High Effort
for developer for end user

Developer End User

Developer End User
lazy developers are lazy
end users tear their hair out & die

Developer End User

Developer End User
dedicated developers spend effort
and their end users win big

"good karma, happy
users, and profit"
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee!

Interface != Graphical
Developers are "end users" too

True greatness is measured by
how much freedom you give to
others, not by how much you
can coerce others to do what
you want.
—Larry Wall
(thanks Tim)

Where to push?

Going the extra mile...
accepting many types of input
formatting data & error recovery
pre-finding what's useful
avoiding configuration
integrating with other services
syncing
elimination of repetition

Finding points of leverage
accepting many types of input
formatting data & error recovery
pre-finding what's useful
avoiding configuration
integrating with other services
syncing
elimination of repetition

& anywhere there's
repetition repetition
repetition repetition
repetition repetition

1 Open email client
2 Search for emails by "Bob"
3 Look for ones with paperclips
4 Open first email, look at filename
Is it the one I want?
No
5 Open next email, look at filename
Is it the one I want?
No
6 Open next email, look at filename

If people are doing things over
and over again, the computer
should be doing it.
Machines are good at repetitive
tasks.
—Yehuda Katz, leader of Ruby on Rails

& anywhere there's
repetition repetition
repetition repetition
repetition repetietion

Positive Examples

Scripting Languages
Good Frameworks

banana:~ amy$ git statsu
git: 'statsu' is not a git‐command.
See 'git ‐‐help'.
Did you mean this?
status

1 Open the container.
Does it have what I want?
No
2 Open next next container.
Does it have what I want?
No
3 Open next container.
Does it have what I want?
No

1 Open the App.
2 Go to the File menu.
3 Go to Recent Files submenu.
Does it have what I want?
No Yes!
4a Go look for it 4b Open it
5 Open folders...
6 Open more folders...
7 Open more folders...

Recipe for Success
1 Find a point of leverage

Finding points of leverage
accepting many types of input
formatting data & error recovery
pre-finding what's useful
avoiding configuration
integrating with other services
syncing
elimination of repetition

Recipe for Success
1 Find a point of leverage
2 Push hard on it

dUser
En
elo per
Dev

Effort
dUser
En
elo per
Dev

Effort Weeee!
dUser
En
elo per
Dev

Recipe for Success
1 Find a point of leverage
2 Push hard on it
3 ... which bends time

1 hour in 4 hours out
developer end users

Recipe for Success
1 Find a point of leverage
2 Push hard on it
3 ... which bends time
4 ... which helps everyone win

good karma, happy
users, profit
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee!

good karma, happy
users, profit
and a better world.
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee! Weeee!
Weeee!

Thanks.
Now go out and leverage!
http://slash7.com
@amyhoy