The website of Joseph Becher

The Official Google Blog defines 10 things that the user experence teams feels makes good code:

1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

For the most part I think my programming follows these guidelines.

Focus on people. If I didn’t care about my users I wouldn’t listen to them. Any problems or ideas that JWebGen users have gets handled promptly.

Every millisecond counts. That’s kinda a tough one. I haven’t mastered the habit of placing timing code into my programs. Generaly I don’t place a high priority on this item because I can’t remember ever getting a comment about the speed.

Simplicity is powerful. This one always trips me up. As I mentioned in a prior post, I have a big problem trying to design first, code later. Who cares how how dirty the code is if the end result and user interface is fast and clean? I don’t.

Engage beginners and attract experts. JWebGen doesn’t have a place for experts. Everybody can see how to use it and it doesn’t need a manual. I rest my case. If it needs a manual you have a problem. Users don’t read, and shouldn’t have to.

Dare to innovate. Why do it everybody else’s way? Do it your way. It sets you apart and people will either love it or hate it. If they hate it, they will either tell you or they won’t. Don’t sweat it.

Design for the world. Designers and programmers aren’t always users. What makes sense to them doesn’t always work for us. If you can use your creation, and want to, and it requires very few questions of ‘How do I do this?’ they you suceeded. It’s nice to feel needed, but don’t be silly.

Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business. In the case of JWebGen, that really just means programming for the future. Can you easily add new features? How bad will things break? Will they break at all? Is your code static, or can it grow?

Delight the eye without distracting the mind. Is it good to look at? Does it have extra pretties that aren’t needed? Extra fluff? Not enough visuals?

Be worthy of people’s trust. It’s fine to create a privacy statement but lets face it, people don’t read them. Either people trust you or they doesn’t. If you except people to locate a privacy statement and be conviced they should trust you then you’ve lost. People shouldn’t even think about this. Be trustworthy.

Add a human touch. I talk to my users. In my code, on my site. Don’t script. People are human. Speak to your users. Build a relantionship. Be informal. Banter. If your users know you, if they trust you they want to use what you give them. They know it’s for them, not that it has a hidden reason for you.

It’s been a month since my last update. Credit Flock with getting that one out to you, although I don’t use the browser. Call me old-school (or new) I like my Firefox. Version 3 is close to release and Parent Folder is 100% compatible with Beta 5.

On the JWebGen front, I added a feature called Surprise me that is a bit hit. Simple code, amazing results. It’s interesting, but I can only program when I just do. Any attempt to design or plan first hits a dead end. Trance helps as well. To those who follow my Last.fm you will see a fair amount of trance showing up. That often means I’m slinging code, and this time is no exception. Not saying what is is because it’s rough and I want it to be a surprise, but there is progress. I just need graphics.

That’s the update. Until next time, keep it turned here, same time, same great station.

The Custom Archive widget is done. I learned a lot creating it and it was fun. Any comments are welcome.

Custom Archive 1.0