There's a ton of talk about good design on this list (and in articles and books and...). What I'd really like to see is with every discounting of software that other people have built (which happens a lot here, it seems), an offering of an example in the same space (e.g., in this case, bug tracking software) that exemplifies what you think is great (or at least better)--and is preferably something you (the person doing the criticizing) have had a hand in. Fogbugz. Yes, not the most elegant solution; however, it is so much better than many (if not all--I haven't looked lately) others in that space. And it does, as Patrick said, resonate with the target audience.
Program manager (a.k.a., product manager outside of MS circles) is not the same as a project manager. I would actually recommend product/program manager as a role to UX folks. Why? Because the PM essentially owns the product (or piece of product) and specifies what does and doesn't get built and, if he/she doesn't have a dedicated designer, can also spec how it works. If you do have designers, you still have a lot of say there. So you're more empowered to ensure that the end product is good. Finally, I think Joel probably is not trying to denigrate the value of design but just has his own understanding and perspective on it based on his experience. He writes from his experience/opinion, not from research. If he were exposed to good designers doing good work and saw the value, I'm pretty sure he'd write about it. What I imagine, though, is he wouldn't take well to a lot of feather fluffing in the design community (as would most software dev types). In any case, I see what he wrote as a baby step forward--helping devs to recognize that they're not best equipped to do UI design.. and even just helping them realize that it is an important aspect that requires special attention (which many devs discount or just don't get). Baby steps.. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
