David Heinemeier Hansson’s perspective:
“I think of functional spec as one of the worst inflictions that has ever happened to the software development world. I think functional specs are a relic of a time when building features was a very, very hard and long process and you had to do all of this upfront planning because once you wrote anything in software, it was pretty much impossible to change it. I don’t think that functional specs is a technique that’s any longer relevant.”
‘There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.’ ~ Mahatma Gandhi, “Non-Violence in Peace and War”
Simplicity, many people think,
is an end in itself
But they’re getting it backwards
Simplicity is the path, the means
It’s not a far off destination,
somewhere in the future
It’s right here, right now
It’s taking things one at a time
It’s asking simple questions
It’s taking simple actions
It’s doing it slowly
It’s considering and being conscious,
with everything
When you find yourself becoming overwhelmed
on the path to simplicity
Taking a complicated, frenzied path
to get there
Stop, consider, and choose
the simpler path
And take it slowly
And easily
And lovely
[via mnmlist]
Dustin:
“There’s a common attribute that makes for good designers, good engineers, good employees, and good companies. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Was it practice? Was it skill? Was it innate ability? Turns out, it’s none of those. It’s taste.“
“[Ira Glass] points out how that gap between ability and taste drives creative people to achieve great things.”
[via Dustin's post on a AA.com UX designer]
“Let’s stop talking about building products. Let’s start talking about creating great experiences.”
Instead of making great software by tweaking one more screen or adding one more feature, let’s step back and take a look at the whole. Understanding what the user experiences, and making that great, is key. Thanks for the reminder Ed, this is one more bit in my drive for contextual design!
Good bit from Ryan:
“Good ideas turn into good designs fairly quickly. If you catch yourself fiddling too much with colors, borders and treatments to bring a design together, chances are the problem lies somewhere deeper.”
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