Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Shitty software & Web applications

Author:Ben Griffiths
Posted:2/18/2000; 5:13:38 PM
Topic:Shitty software & Web applications
Msg #:15104 (In response to 15103)
Prev/Next:15103 / 15105

Absolutely!!

It's the dialogue that's important. And that's what most software companies have to learn. Manila, for example, is a concept - not an implementation. It doesn't matter to us whether it's in Frontier, Python, C++, etc.

The same goes for web applications in general - the back-end is your responsibility. And the users will hold you to it.

Compare it to conventional software use: You work in a large company. Your IT department spends a fortune on Odyssey 2001 - because the IT press is enamoured with it. They push the software on to you. They've invested so much in it, change becomes political (to say the least). You are twenty steps away from the developers. (IT journalists are often even further away from you!!)

With web applications, the software developer can monitor which buttons their users press, which ones they don't. And, with a dialogue-based ethos, which features they like and which features they want. In real-time.

Making shitty software is fine, as long as you let users in on the process. Engender their trust. Userland gets this, as far as I can tell.




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