The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapters 3-5

Reference Information
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
Cooper, Alan
Sams Publishing, 2004


Summary
Chapter three is about how companies waste time and money on rushed and poorly implemented software projects. A key idea is how managers and programmers view project completion. One of the primary driving forces in software development is time to market: being the first to get a product out there can generate enormous success. Therefore, management wants to get the product coded as fast as possible without real regard to quality and usability. The author suggests that shipping a product late does not seriously dampen the chances of success for the product. Contrary to popular opinion, having a large feature set should not be the primary goal. Many times, these features simply get in the way. The objective, therefore, is to provide the best usability, even at the cost of features. The author believes that prototypes should be created for each product, then completely thrown away. The experience gained from this is invaluable and helps make the final product much better.


Chapter four, entitled The Dancing Bear, discusses the failure of software in regards to the typical user (i.e. not power user) who is frustrated by needlessly overcomplicated software. These users just assume that all the problems must be with themselves since, if it was a real problem, then it would have been solved by now. Many times, users a blinded by the superfluous features and do not see what poor interaction the software is actually providing. The chapter is concluded with a list of what the author thinks is wrong with current software:

• software forgets most of what you do or prefer
• software does not work hard enough for the users
• it is stingy with information
• the user is forced to operate on the software's level
• it blames the user for any mistakes

Chapter five is about the fickle nature of the consumer, and how poorly designed products will be abandoned in favor of easier to use ones without regard for manufacturer. The chapter outlines a model consisting of three factors that determine whether a product will be a commercial success. These factors are: capability, viability, and desirability. Capability is simply whether the product can be made. Viability is whether the product can actually sell. Desirability is delivering what the users really want. If all of these are achieved, the product will engender strong customer loyalty. 

Opinion
There was some interesting material here. My best observation is when the author is talking about the failure of email in chapter four, he discusses the lack of threaded conversations in email clients at the time of writing. It is somewhat interesting that since that time Gmail has appeared and gone on to such great success.