Why Craftsmanship is More Important than Ever

I've often had discussions with people about the importance of design in software. By design, I mean things like: usability (= learnability + productivity), ergonomics and plain ol' appeal (after all, you want people to use and like your software don't you?) I've been known to drive developers nuts moving things around on screen, and even became known to a few as "2 pixel boy", because I'd always be asking developers to move their textbox labels up or down 2 pixels to make sure the baseline of the text in the label matched the baseline of the text inside the text area. Basic stuff in my opinion, but continually overlooked by many.

Clearly there are a couple of camps on the relative importance of design. You know, the form vs. function debates. I won't recreate that debate here, but I am pleased to see what I think will be a new bias being adopted by the general public in the coming years.

I believe that "elegance" is going to make a big come-back. I think we're exiting the age of utility development (having laid working infrastructure) and entering a new age of craftsmanship.

From a business perspective, here are the trends I see that I believe are the signals of a shift on emphasis from "cramming features onto the brochure" to "crafting" an elegant solution to each software problem:

1. "Individuals" (not just companies) can finally produce software: Large groups that produce software tend to move towards a manufacturing or assembly-line organizational structure. The reason being, this is one of the few ways (maybe the only way?) we know how to get a large group of people working together on a single complex activity like developing software. We each take our little piece, and no-one holds the "whole" in their mind at any given time. By contrast, the individual (or small team) tends to gravitate towards the "craftsman" style of work. Everyone can see the whole of what they are building and how each of the little pieces interact with eachother to form the whole user experience. There's a higher degree of association between builder and product, which leads to pride in worksmanship, which leads to higher quality design and products. This simple "bias" in how we behave depending on the size of the group, will influence the outcome of our designs.
2. The people that used to buy the software didn't actually use it; now the users buy the software: Most business apps historically have been purchased by CEO's, CTO's, IS departments or managers on behalf of their users. This was largely due to the fact that once you bought a system for your people to use, you were "locked-in" with file formats, protocols and other various reasons why you simply couldn't live with having more, smaller apps floating around your company. Each app required an investment in training, so you'd want to make sure you had to train your people on as few tools as possible. When purchase decisions are being made by people that aren't actually going to use the software, the only major decision points are things like: the demo, the brochure, the price per seat. Software was purchased at the top, then handed down to the people that were told to use it. Ergonomics were considered frivolous. There was no self selection going on. Now that we're in the trough of disillusionment with big shaggy enterprise software, people are moving towards smaller independent apps that can simply talk to eachother (with less upfront investment, and much lower price points). When users buy their tools directly, elegance, usability and design become MUCH more important in the purchase decision.
3. Who HASN'T used a computer these days? We've finally hit that point where software is everywhere. First-time users are nowhere to be found. Using the "computer" is no more thrilling than using a fork. The computer is so commonplace now that is has become invisible (almost) and the only thing people see is the software - it defines their experience to a large degree. I remember when I first started riding motorcycles. I was so thrilled just to be on the bike that it didn't matter how cold it was outside, or if it was raining, or if it was boiling hot underneath my leather. I rode because it was thrilling. Then the thrill wore off... My view of the bike changed. I now saw it not as novel, but simply as a means of transportation. When that happened, it was always too hot, or too cold, or too inconvenient to carry personal items (or a passenger). I stopped riding. People have used enough software now that the thrill has worn off and they are much harder to impress. They aren't as easily hypnotized with all the fancy items on the feature list and the mere promise of new capabilities. They have seen well designed products and they have seen crap. And they are better able to discern the difference before they make their purchase decision. All the promises on the brochure aren't enough to cinch the deal.
4. Try-before-you-buy is now mandatory: at least for most product categories. It's not just the list of features, but the initial experience after trying the product for a while for free that determines likelihood of purchase (or in the case of in-house software, willing adoption). The power has shifted from the vendor who could sell products without actually letting people try them, to the consumer, who will try it first and make up their own minds about the wild claims made on the web-site.
5. Software has moved from the early adopters to the majority: I know it sounds crazy to think that software wasn't already in the majority for the last several years. And maybe for businesses it was more-so. Consumers are now software connoisseurs too though. When something is at the early adopter stage, its level of polish and craftsmanship is less important. Fanatics, hobbyists and the curious will "administer" their own software. They'll do crazy things like rebuild kernels and configure until the cows come home. Now, people want stuff that just works. That's a lot harder to build and requires a lot more attention to detail and to the user experience in the design process. Products that just work are now being chosen over competing ones that are cheaper and have more features! This is a new emphasis coming from our customer bases.

Personally, I think it bodes well for the future generation of software products. I say bring it on! It's an exciting time to be a developer.