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teChniCALLy And ACtuALLy

working stuFF

“A design isn’t finished until somebody is using

it,” said Brenda Laurel, a great designer who used

to work for Atari, among others, in the 80s. This

is a condensed truth. Great designs don’t just look

beautiful: they let people succeed in their endeavours.

A design actually works if people keep using it and

their experience is great. This is the difference between

‘technically working’ and ‘actually working’. Your

team might claim that something works just because

functionally it’s more or less all right. If you know

how to perform a certain task, you can succeed – they

say. It’s according to the spec – they say. It’s just as we

discussed it – they keep saying.

The problem is that the users don’t know, or care,

whether the feature is as you discussed. They only care

whether they like using it.

So does the feature work or not? In a company

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