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What comes after usability? - 4 March 2007
by Kathy Sierra
Read this article in Chinese (translated by Ying Lu, proofread by Shuzhong Zhao )
The software development process usually drives what users get. In the beginning, there was the Waterfall model based on a world where everything is known in advance and specs don't change (i.e. a figment). Users got something functional, just not what they wanted or needed by the time the software shipped. Then came various spiral flavors: Iterative, Agile, XP. Unlike waterfalls (which run in one direction and don't back up), spirals can produce software much more likely to match what users want. Spirals support usability, and usability drives the need for spiral development. But what comes after usability? And will new development approaches emerge to support it?
So, I guess I'm really asking two somewhat-related questions. This is just a first crack very rough look for me, so please feel free to hack away, remix, rearrange, and add your own more credible (or just as wild-ass as mine) ideas.
After Usability comes Flow
"Thanks for giving me something useable, well-designed, and useful. Now, can you make it as engaging as a game or sport? Can you keep me so immersed that time and all the clutter of daily existence drops away? Where I'm under a spell that's never broken by an intrusion from the software itself? Where the challenge is NOT in using the software, but in what I'm using the software TO DO?"
Even if users don't start demanding Flow... it's a huge opportunity and advantage for those whose products support it. (And one of the key attributes of products with passionate users)
To learn more about flow--and I strongly encourage us all to make a study of it--some resources include:
An excellent overview of flow theory by award-winning game designer Jenova Chen, including an enchanting, seductive game that implements a theory of flow.
Game design guy Raph Koster's blog, and don't forget his excellent book on A Theory of Fun.
And two of my earlier posts on this:
User Enchantment and Cognitive Seduction.
What about development models?
I really have no idea. People like Jonathan Kohl and Jason Gorman are talking about Post-Agilism, but there's no agreement on what that looks like or even means. Some see it as nothing more than the practical approach of taking the best of what works without being such a hard-core Agile zealot. In other words, "agile" with a lower-case "a" rather than The Church of Agile.
And in this post I'm really talking about the web-app world, not necessarily big corporate enterprise systems that don't have the pressure the new class of web-apps (or games) have. It's the new web-app development that needs ultra-fast releases and near-instant responses to user needs (not necessarily user requests). Is there a Post-Agile model that works for this? Or is just faster, tighter iterations?
Do we speed up the spirals or do we do something completely different? How does this fit with things like, say, the 37Signals somewhat controversial Getting Real approach? I say "controversial" because some see it as nothing new at all, or worse--a fly-by-the-seat thing that absolutely Does Not Scale, or...
So, what do you think?
(And if I were smarter than I actually am, I would have done this artwork more napkin-sketchesque so you'd realize just how rough my thoughts are on this. As if that wasn't obvious...)
Kathy Sierra has been interested in the brain and artificial intelligence since her days as a game developer. She is the co-creator of the bestselling Head First series (finalist for a Jolt Software Development award in 2003, and named to the Amazon Top Ten Editors Choice Computer Books for 2003 and 2004). She is also the founder of one of the largest community web sites in the world, javaranch.com. Kathy's passions are skiing, running, her Icelandic horse, gravity, and her latest favorite thing--Dance Dance Revolution.
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john ramond
very interesting article thanks!