Programmers Designing

The first "volunteers" to address the problems of the new nontechnical users were the programmers themselves. That their culture and tools were wholly inadequate to the task was less relevant than that they were the only available candidates for the job. Like the bystander unlucky enough to be near the scene of an accident, programmers were called upon to deliver first aid to interfaces by the simple virtue of their propinquity. Programmers are nothing if not game, and prideful in their competence, so the difficult challenge of designing interaction appealed to them, and they invested considerable effort. This gave rise to the sardonic joke in the industry that says, "Design is what the programmers do in the 20 minutes before they begin coding."

I've shown throughout this book that the programmers' efforts were ill-fated from the beginning. As Po Bronson says, they consider the absence of criticism a compliment, so their assessment of their own performance is unrealistically positive, and many of them insist on continued ownership of the design role. Like mad kings, programmers are unwilling to relinquish territory after it is occupied, even if the occupation is unpleasant, unprofitable, undesired, and untenable.

Regardless of how much you might teach, test, or design, you are a programmer if you program professionally. In the same way that there is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant, there is no such thing as doing a little bit of programming.

Even though many developers remain unconvinced that a significant problem exists ("the users just need to learn more"), others clearly see the frustration and expense caused by wholesale dancing bearware. The good news is that this latter group is gaining strength, and the willingness of most development organizations to seek outside help is growing.

Most programmers are actually pretty good at design, and many of those who are not are humbly aware of their shortcomings and avoid practicing it. The giant caveat is that when programmers design, their effort is almost always based on the unique personality of Homo logicus. The end result is a difficult-to-use and inappropriate product that other programmers tend to really like.