Modern Software Development Is Cancer
I agree with the sentiment.
For those feeling a tad cynical, here is the executive summary:
Software is supposed to improve the quality of life of the users. Often this goal is not attained. Instead software often only improves the gratification of the developers. Buzzwords are used to create an illusion of quality.
Free/libre software developers are not accountable to users. The developers treat software as a personal playground. Personal gratification and tinkering is more gratifying than user satisfaction.
Commercial software revolves around keeping developers accountable to the whims of the owners, but the owners of the software think development is their personal playground.
Both forms of development treat users as unpaid beta testers. A primary difference between free/libre and commercial software development is the target of the latter is to treat the user as an end product, something to be exploited.
Free/libre software developers seldom perform usability testing or ask users what the software should do. Usability testing interferes with treating software development as a personal playground. Commercial software developers perform usability testing, but ignore the results when users cannot be exploited and treated as a product.
Useful and well-designed software should not break and should be transparent to the user. Software should “just work.”
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General
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