Wholeheartedly agree. I see some people here would benefit from reading, 'The Inmates Are Running the Asylum' by Alan Cooper.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

Also found this, for those who are interested: "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum", by Alan Cooper: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

This was just the start:

http://vimeo.com/85948693

Now companies and big governments are analyzing network graphs in real time thanks to Facebook. They can test people's reaction on real time to anything.

I don't believe that Apple's success is just about Advertisement, I use their products a lot because they are very good products.

When I was a kid I did not have money so I bought all computer gear myself looking for the best deal, then I also used my own OS(gentoo with everything super optimized). I used to joke with my friends about how Apple was all about Advertisements and nothing about quality, and people was so stupid.

Then I grow up, I started working on my own and I suffered so much for my conscienceless. First I had to change to a stable Debian because gentoo was killing me, then I had to change to standardized hardware too as it was doing my life miserable.

One day I bought a mac as a luxury because I had made some money with my company. I started using it a lot, it was so simple and it did not made me spent as much time as Linux. I made some numbers and it made sense to buy more Apple gear. It worked great.

I made tons of money buying "expensive"() stuff.

What makes Apple great is that is is one of the only companies that get how real people work, read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

Now, I am not a fanatic of Apple, I would love other companies doing the same(like doing my computers on metal) but it is not easy. In my experience companies without engineers on place do not know how to create things. Those that have engineers on place do not understand humans well enough.

()expensive is losing a customer because you could not fix something on time. Expensive is paying an engineer to pay for something that should not be broken in the fist time.

The problem of engineers designing UIs is the topic of one of my favorite books: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

The problem is that engineers are not very good at UI design. Both from UX and aesthetic standpoints designers are capable of making a better product. A good designer will give a consistently better result than a good engineer in terms of usability, UX, aesthetics and modularity.

By the way, the counterpoint to that Cory Doctorow quote how everything is a computer (airplane is a flying computer) is that the EXACT PROBLEM with software is that damn near everything is a computer. And when you add a computer to anything, it tends to go to shit. Things that worked just fine without it, now saddled with the typical software engineering mindset, are suddenly not so good. BMW iDrive, Ford Sync/MyFord Touch case in point.

Read the preview of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

The part that says "what do you get when you cross a computer with an airplane".

For good product usability, being proactive, and getting 80% of the use cases right is much more important than being making no mistake and shift the decision (and blame) to the user. Especially since most of the time the user has no technical background to make the correct decisions. I used to think like you until I read The Inmates are running the Assylum[0]. I still do for my personal workflow (that is why I prefer archlinux to ubuntu), but I try to be proactive in the error catching in the software I write.

[0]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672...

I understand the point, but there is a challenge that has to be met, particularly if you are trying to build a consumer product. It is very easy to fall into the "Inmates are Running the Asylum"[1] trap, the product looks good within the team and to like minded customers but is missing something (or everything) for the broader customer base. This lead an entire industry to spend decades building products that only techies could love...

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp...

For a more thorough treatment of this topic, read Alan Cooper's classic book _The Inmates are Running the Asylum_ http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp...

Cooper first writes something we all like to hear: programmers actually control the fate of most high tech businesses. But then he makes a compelling argument that we're really horrible at what we do.

The ideas in this book are difficult to swallow, but once I got past my own ego I learned a lot from it. Not every programmer is a design idiot, but most of us are. Good design requires study and training. Intuition alone only gets you halfway there (unless you're Steve Jobs, and he's not a developer).

This is a must read:

The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper

http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp...