It's becoming a pattern: Teams use AI to rapidly build impressive demos. The happy path works beautifully. Investors and social networks are wowed. But when real users start clicking around? That's when things fall apart....
* Error messages that make no sense to normal users
* Edge cases that crash the application
* Confusing UI states that never got cleaned up
* Accessibility completely overlooked
* Performance issues on slower devices
These aren't just P2 bugs - they're the difference between software people tolerate and software people love.
I'm going to read this, Henry. Thanks for posting. This is my concern, too -- that our tolerances for companies and products are just too high. Why do we continue to establish trust with them? For the most part, they have been "good" to us -- but it's difficult to see the other side, which is hidden away (privacy, hidden costs, poor implementation)...
Riddle me this: The man who is afraid to have his portfolio judged is also deemed worthy by colleagues to judge design competitions.
Hah yes it’s a good riddle, the stuff of human oddity. And I used to teach design management including portfolio design to honours students.
Just read a fascinating article on the AI impact on developers which I think has a lot of application to designers (https://addyo.substack.com/p/the-70-problem-hard-truths-about). It's what the author calls "The Lost Art of Polish":
It's becoming a pattern: Teams use AI to rapidly build impressive demos. The happy path works beautifully. Investors and social networks are wowed. But when real users start clicking around? That's when things fall apart....
* Error messages that make no sense to normal users
* Edge cases that crash the application
* Confusing UI states that never got cleaned up
* Accessibility completely overlooked
* Performance issues on slower devices
These aren't just P2 bugs - they're the difference between software people tolerate and software people love.
I'm going to read this, Henry. Thanks for posting. This is my concern, too -- that our tolerances for companies and products are just too high. Why do we continue to establish trust with them? For the most part, they have been "good" to us -- but it's difficult to see the other side, which is hidden away (privacy, hidden costs, poor implementation)...