Scott Berkun challenges us to make Better Software

We invest a lot of time trying software before we say it sucks ...

"Why software sucks (And what to do about it)" is another insightful essay from Scott Berkun, who looks beyond the failure of software to what response it triggers and how to avoid making it bad in the first place. He looks first at how people respond to what they use:

"One way to think about how people respond to things is this spectrum:
* What is this for?
* I have that but haven’t tried it
* I’m annoyed by this, but I don’t need it often
* This Sucks
* This is acceptable
* This is cool / I love it
* This works so well I don’t even think about it

This is one representation of how people respond to things (there are others). The point of this representation is that "this sucks" is right in the middle. In order for people to say "this sucks" they have to care enough about the thing you’ve made to spend time with it and recognize how bad it is. For things that are equally bad, but are unimportant to someone, you won’t hear the same complaint. We're frustrated most in life by things that come close to our deepest needs, but don't deliver. It's the things that tease us, making us think they'll satisfy us but then failing, than hurt the most."   continued ...   (Via Usability News)

This Sucks?