app development is just writing code right?
fucking WRONG.
turns out for your app to be successful you need to watch hundreds of people use your app, meticulously record where they get stuck or get bored, and then fix that.
Repeat forever.
Discussion
it's hard work, and time consuming.
that's why instead of giving away my app for free, I would sell it so it keeps me motivated.
at least now we have chatgpt to help us find the errors faster
App development must always take into account the user experience 🤙⚡️
Thanks Will for all your hard work and for listening 💜
I feel this in micro size - my adhd poison illuminated - love every new project, hate the last miles of every project
interact with humans and have empathy with their struggles!? I don't think most engineers are used to thinking this way.
The iteration wheel of success
That's why mate who's a system tester makes so much money 💰
You don’t really “build an app.” You babysit it while humans break it in ways you never imagined. And then you rebuild it smarter…
We love ya!
I couldn’t agree more.
Writing a successful, impactful app is an obsession based on a vision that you have. Writing code is a small but crucially vital part.
My own experience is that I end up thinking for days (weeks!) before I buckle down to code. And in most cases, when I get down to code, I realize I don’t understand the problem enough and I have to go back to the drawing board.
But the especially fun part is when you’ve created or discovered something new, that no one, not even the users yet realize the value.
Our Programmer, who art in the cloud,
Hallowed be Thy code.
Thy algorithms run,
Thy functions be done,
On local as it is in production.
Give us this day our daily updates,
And forgive us our bugs,
As we debug those who glitch against us.
And lead us not into infinite loops,
But deliver us from system crashes.
For Thine is the framework, the logic, and the deployment,
Forever and ever.
Commit.
Job security👍🏼
I worked for a software company for many years and even after they had a UX team and did studies and testing and created personas etc etc there was still some pretty bad UX.
yeah even with lots of people it aint easy
My worst day coding was when coded and tested complex changes all day and the last compile of the day I compiled it with the same name as the source file. I shut down the computer and went home for the day after that. I never repeated that mistake again.
If passion isn't driving you to do it, why are you doing it? I'd would say.
True. Real question.. how was that not obvious?
its really not. programming is hard enough in its own
Well damn, I took that for granted. Just assumed it was required and part of the task itself. 👍
its “easier” with pervasive analytics that tracks what all users are doing and where they get stuck. but we have a stance against that so we have to do it in person instead with random people. It’s very time consuming and iteration cycles are slow.
100% understandable. If you didn't add one, you could add a report issue form/message. User voluntary action in this case. Commendable stance on not collecting user data!
The large majority of people do not give feedback unfortunately. They just check out the app, see nothing for them, and leave.
For everything else we have user test groups and feedback on nostr, but even that is pretty sparse at the moment.
software engineers (IMO its inadequate to call them app developers) have to be polymaths to be successful. its hard work, man.
You are doing it right!
everyone can develop apps, few can develop good products
A constant work to improve defects and imperfections. Yes friend 😉