Software Designers

So you may be asking: what does design have to do with creating a piece of software? When I tell customers that our team designs the Revit user experience, the most common response is "so you are a software engineer, right?" This is a common misconception about software; that it is created solely by software engineers. While this has been largely true for the past few decades, the way software is designed is changing in a big way. In many forward thinking companies like Autodesk, the concept of a holistic user experience - the way the user perceives and uses the product, including everything from the first experience with download site to the user interface to the accompanying documentation - is designed by user experience specialists. Additionally, usability practitioners evaluate the learnability, effectiveness, and efficiency of our product designs with users.

To sharpen the point, I often provide the following analogy to our customers, particularly architects: Think of Revit as a building. You sit in front of the computer and "inhabit" the application for hours at a stretch. To that end, it is critical that this experience be designed to ensure that you can accomplish your tasks in an efficient, accurate, and enjoyable manner. Similarly, when you ensure that your buildings truly fit your clients' needs and delights the inhabitants, you strive to achieve good design. We strive for the same exact thing. Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for this apt analogy. Almost twenty years ago, Mitchell Kapor made a similar comparison in A Software Design Manifesto, his appeal for the establishment of a professional discipline of software design:

The Roman architecture critic Vitruvius advanced the notion that well-designed buildings were those which exhibited firmness, commodity, and delight. The same might be said of good software. Firmness: A program should not have any bugs that inhibit its function. Commodity: A program should be suitable for the purposes for which it was intended. Delight: The experience of using the program should be pleasurable one. Here we have the beginnings of a theory of design for software.

So remember, as you work tirelessly to bring delight to your clients through your designs, we endeavor towards the same goal!

Comments

[Aaron Maller]

VERY much looking forward to this blog. Everytime someone starts wishing/theorizing about new features on AUGI, i always like to sit and imagine how you develop things... How tools come to fruition.

Cant wait to read!

Aaron Maller
(twiceroadsfool)

[Danny]

Look forward to the many posts ahead. The question that I have is will the blog be covering just the interface, feel, and use of Revit, alone? Or will you also cover, why this feature is being added or not? Or why this tool is the way it is?

In other words, will you be covering both the capability of Revit, as well as its usability?

[Anthony Hauck]

Good question, Danny. Since the capability and usability are intertwined in the user experience, we will surely be talking a lot about both. I am working on a FAQ to be posted soon.