Engineers, I am disappoint
Dear engineers,
Your opinion on a product doesn't matter unless everyone else (in the target demographic) agrees with you.
Why, engineers, is this so hard for you, of all people, to stomach??
On one hand, computer engineers immediately recognize the evils of premature optimization: Clearly you can't assume the slow, simplistic approach is no good; instead run performance tests and benchmarks to see if it matters. It's a waste of time to guess where your bottlenecks are; instead use a profiler to prove where things are slowing down. If some O(2^n) function isn't affecting performance, it's not slow.
Similarly, computer engineers fully understand how foolish it is to design an API without asking their clients for input. Who cares if you think it'd be helpful to provide a million arguments to a constructor so one could customize it just so; if your clients don't want it, then your API is flawed.
These classic engineering principles are so naturally understood and accepted because they echo the fundamental principles of science: Do research. Get data. Crunch numbers. Yes, you can make observations and you can have your guesses and hunches and feelings, but obviously hypothesis != proof.
And yet! While an engineer will swear upon these scientific tenets in a decidedly engineering environment, when it comes to the business-y aspects of a product, suddenly his/her rationale becomes entirely emotional.
When it comes to the UI of a product, or its set of features, or its marketing campaign, I know so many engineers who draw conclusions — stubborn conclusions! — largely based on their personal feelings and intuition:
"This UI sucks; it's ugly and weird to me."
"This is the best product I've ever used. How DARE X company cancel the project?"
"I hate this product and here is my well-reasoned explanation of why I hate it. Therefore it is awful."
Yes, engineer, you may have your opinions. Your opinions may be logical and valid.
But who cares what you think, if your opinion isn't significant? No, a UI doesn't suck if it sucks for you; it only sucks if it sucks for everyone. No, a company shouldn't keep around a great product if only 1000 people buy it. Think the iPad is a douchey, glorified iPhone with a name that never fails to remind you lady products? You have every right to hate as your heart pleases! But Apple isn't stupid for making it.
You and your opinion represent one data point. Don't be baffled or insulted or outraged when your company (or another) acts as such. It'd be downright unscientific to act otherwise!
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