Simon’s Blog

Some people say that there many talented developers (sometimes also known as hackers) out there wanting to found Internet companies. And, if you look at Technorati, you’ll see that the most popular software development search term out there at the moment is AJAX. From which we might conclude (as if we didn’t already know) that there are many talented developers out there that want to found Internet companies where the main technology focus is AJAX. But I would assert that this obsession with AJAX is missing the point.

I don’t mean missing the point in terms of business focus (which is, of course, a problem). I mean missing the point in terms of technology focus. Why? Because the big technology challenge facing companies that want to compete in a Web 2.0 world is nothing to do with choice of technology. Choose AJAX or Java or something else. It doesn’t matter. Most technologies can do the job - with varying degrees of efficiency, of course… but when was the last time employees in loss-making VC-backed businesses genuinely cared about efficiency (but that’s another story)?! The problem is: Web 2.0 is all about participation and community – which makes the number one technical challenge for today the design and implementation of compelling, easy to use graphical user interfaces.

And boy, is it ever a challenge. There’s something that’s always intrigued me about talented developers (and developers who think they’re talented for that matter). It’s not whether they prefer AJAX or Java… or Perl or Python or PHP or Ruby… or C/C++… or Lisp. Rather, the puzzle is that so many of these people turn out to be big fans of Mac OS X and the iPod. Why is this intriguing? Because to me, it’s a paradox. You see, one of the main reasons people like (and even love) what Apple do, is because of their (Steve Jobs’s) great passion for user interface design. And yet, most developers aren’t even close to being either knowledgeable or passionate about great user interface design when it comes to their own work.

I genuinely don’t understand this. I’m guessing, though, a big part of this is that developers don’t spend enough time thinking about how people interact with computers and other devices. So what’s the solution? Well, the good thing about talented developers is that most of them can read! And here’s the book to read..

… The Humane Interface – by Jef Raskin. This is not a book that provides a step by step guide to good user interface design. It’s a book about ideas. Ideas that really help talented developers think deeply about the principles of good user interface design.