Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been trying to enhance the development process at work. Matt‘s been leading the charge on doing more quality assurance and things of that sort. I’ve been a little less vocal about it; I think it’s been because I’m still trying to figure out the best way to go about it. As I’ve been pondering it, though, I’ve noticed that this conversation seems to be occurring more often between developers around the Web.
My friend Ian has written a couple of excellent posts about two topics that are near and dear to anyone in a product-based industry: quantity versus quality and the bulleted features list. I’ve always found it interesting that even in such a diverse field, many of the same factors of product development ring true.
One of the sites on my reading list is the blog of usability and interaction designer Daniel J. Wilson. He recently posted an article about some interaction testing of a new product called Skitch. We’ve had the opportunity to do this sort of auditing on our own projects lately, and it’s an invaluable exercise. Besides the sheer fun of trying to deconstruct and self-criticize the project you just finished coding, this sort of testing really allows you to step back and visualize the experience of your product from the user’s point of view. Although it sounds simple, it’s really not; I’ve recently found that it takes much more than “point out anything that doesn’t make sense” to instruct someone on this sort of testing.
These sorts of enhancements, though, are those that will cause users to enjoy using (and continue using) a product. They’re the ones that patch mental disconnects. They’re the ones that might prevent maintenance work later in the product’s lifetime. In development, the little things are the big things.