A huge problem for projects is the lack of a common language between the developers and the users.
When my colleague and I were preparing a presentation for an internal conference on this subject, he said something that has stuck with me. He said, “The goal of the project is to make the user successful.” I added to that: It’s not to write code or validate code. It’s not even to ship a product or make money (of course, this last one is especially true in a non-profit organization). At least, it shouldn’t be these things.
The goal of a project is to make the user successful at what he wants to accomplish.
Go ahead, read that previous sentence a few times. It’s one that would do well to sink in.
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Tags:
interaction design,
technical communication,
technical writing,
user interfaces,
vocabulary
I recently finished reading Word Wizard, a collection of essays by Richard Lederer. (If you’ve ever been forwarded the email that asks why if we say “tooth” and “teeth,” why don’t we pluralize “booth” as “beeth,” Lederer’s the guy who wrote those musings.) Two of the essays struck me as ironic, but it’s likely that I noticed the irony only because the two pieces were placed near each other in the book.
One is called “Cut the Verbal Fat,” and the other, “Add Wealth to your Vocabulary.”
They seem contradictory at first glance. But are they?
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Tags:
Richard Lederer,
vocabulary
I saw a recent article that said that according to one language watcher, English is getting close to having a million official words. There is some debate, of course, including from people of Oxford English Dictionary. One of the factors of language change that is especially significant in our time, though ignored in this article, is the rapid advances in technology. But in the rush to give an innovative name or verb to everything, let’s not forget English’s old town charm.
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Tags:
active vocabulary,
English language,
linguistics,
vocabulary
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