{"id":352,"date":"2011-03-31T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/?p=352"},"modified":"2011-06-09T13:15:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T20:15:24","slug":"loaded-words-matter-so-listen-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/31\/loaded-words-matter-so-listen-up\/","title":{"rendered":"loaded words matter, so listen up"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Welch<\/a> pointed out an article from Justin Williams, an independent Mac\/iOS developer, about how ‘Useless’ Is a Loaded Word<\/a>. \u00a0Williams opens up with this:<\/p>\n

Here is a tip for all the non-developers out there. When you email your favorite developer with a feature request or bug report never, ever, ever use the word\u00a0useless<\/em> to describe their product.\u00a0Useless<\/em> is kryptonite to developers and puts us on the defensive instantly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I cannot disagree enough with this assertion. \u00a0Feedback is love. \u00a0Your user, or at least a potential user, took the time out of their day to write to you to tell you something that you could do that might help you win their time, their loyalty, and their money. \u00a0Feedback is a gift, a priceless gift. \u00a0The wrapping paper might be an unattractive shade of brown, but the gift inside is one that you should never ignore.<\/p>\n

People use hyperbole. \u00a0They’re prone to using it when excited or upset. \u00a0People are most likely to offer feedback when they’re excited or upset. \u00a0As a result, you’re likely to that hyperbole in action when you receive unsolicited feedback. \u00a0Yes, they’re probably using loaded words. \u00a0But those loaded words matter.<\/p>\n

When you get any piece of feedback, you’ve got to figure out what to do about it. \u00a0Marco Arment said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If you call my app \u201cuseless\u201d, I stop reading right there and either hit Delete or keep scrolling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I suppose that’s one way to make your decision. \u00a0Making decisions about your applications based solely on an emotional response might not be the right way to go about it, but everyone gets to do their own thing. \u00a0Instead, I think you should step back a bit and try to determine what’s caused such a response. \u00a0It behooves you to do this for both positive hyperbole (“OMG YOUR APP IS THE BEST APP EVAR!!!!!!”) and negative hyperbole (“OMG YOUR APP KILLS USELESS KITTENS DEAD!!!!!!!”). \u00a0This isn’t to say that you’ll necessarily act on the feedback, but you do need to at least understand it.<\/p>\n

Determining what gift is hidden behind that ugly brown wrapping paper is a hard-won skill. \u00a0It’s not about “developing a thicker skin”. \u00a0It’s about learning how to hear what someone is really saying, not just the words that are coming out of their mouth. \u00a0In fact, Williams himself says nearly the same thing in another post about edge cases<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Any developer worth his salt hears about [edge case] issues like this and their skin starts to crawl.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes! \u00a0That’s it, right there! \u00a0You hear someone describe an issue, and your skin crawls because you know that there’s something more going on than what they’re saying. \u00a0So you take the time to consider what their feedback indicates about your application, and you decide what to do about it. \u00a0Of course, Williams had said earlier in that post that his “nerd ego” had been boosted a bit, which makes it psychologically easier to try to tease apart the feedback to determine if there’s something to be done.<\/p>\n

It’s tempting to only listen to the feedback that tells you what you want to hear, or is offered without any kind of (real or perceived) judgement. \u00a0Don’t just pay attention to what your nerd ego wants to hear. \u00a0Listen to it all. \u00a0Accept the love, accept the hate, and continue striving to make your apps better based on what you learn from both the lovers and the haters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Welch pointed out an article from Justin Williams, an independent Mac\/iOS developer, about how ‘Useless’ Is a Loaded Word. \u00a0Williams opens up with this: Here is a tip for all the non-developers out there. When you email your favorite developer with a feature request or bug report never, ever, ever use the word\u00a0useless to … Continue reading loaded words matter, so listen up<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-ux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nadynerichmond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}