Ever wondered why Apple has such a loyal following, and why its iPod outsells more powerful and cheaper competition? The secret is simple: exceptional user experience. But you can use it, too, against your engineering dominated competition.
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Computers are now so cheap that software must be written for users
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Design is not mainly about graphics.
Although a pleasurable environment helps, for computers the orchestration of the interactions is key.
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Most users are not good programmers, they use a different way of organizing information:
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Spatial organization
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Visible connections
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Learnable idioms
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Workable abstractions to create a valuable service
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Care must be taken to insulate the design from schedule pressures: If corners must be cut, then programmers are not the best to make the decision