Letters To The Editor

Blogging, Programming, And How Users Work

This started out innocently enough.  A subscriber asked me about blogging and whether I could explain when you might use it for business applications.  One thing led to another – well, you’ll see.

Amy,

I read your article as well as of others on blogging and its emerging acceptance. Though it seems to be a promising and easy solution for consumers, I am still not sure if it will work as a business solution. I would appreciate it if you could you brief me on some scenarios where blogging will exceed its traditional counterparts such as Knowledge Base. Charu Kapoor

Charu,

Your question fits perfectly into the article I've written about Trellix's entry into the blogging market.

A blog isn't a knowledge base, but it is a way of having a community be able to discuss topics in an organized way and keep the results.

I think it's highly suitable for small businesses and projects in businesses of any size as well as social projects (planning family events, running a Boy Scout troop, a church group, a political action committee). 

Amy

But then, one thing led to another – more questions.

Amy,

As you have described weblog usage scenarios, I think the following three factors would be important in its mass usage - postability for multiple users (maybe permission based), ability to search archives, and to specify Meta tags. Without search there is no way of finding specific information in the weblog archives and the meta tags will help to publicize the weblog itself (maximizing audience reach). 

Charu

Charu,

Some weblogs can support multiple posters -- it depends on how you set up the permissions.  On my weblog I can give multiple people editorial rights -- and I did when we first set up the site so my mentors could help me for the first few weeks.  You would normally do this under password protection so it is limited to a small circle.  (It's also possible to have the recipients of a weblog limited to a password-protected group, too.)

I don't believe the weblog I use supports Search (although I am always finding out it has functions I don't know about.  Since the Trellix weblog will have all the functions of its underlying web site software it might have a search function.  I've written the software authors to get a more definitive answer and it will be included when this correspondence appears in the newsletter. 

Amy

Broadening The Discussion

So I wrote to Dan Bricklin of Trellix and Dave Winer of Userland.  (Dave has been recovering from surgery, so John Robb of Userland took over the task of replying.)

To: Dan Bricklin; Dave Winer

Subject: Weblog Functions

Dan and Dave:

I am corresponding with one of my Opinions subscribers about the weblog article that appeared in my newsletter last week.

One of the questions that came up is whether or not a weblog supports "Search" (of the archives).  Does either of yours?  I've never seen a search function on my weblog, but I've learned that I'm not necessarily aware of everything the weblog can do.  Dan, will the Trellix weblog have search because it inherits it with the web site functions?

The subscriber also asked if multiple people can edit the weblog.  I know you can do that on mine.  Will that be possible (with permission) on Trellix?

Thanks,

Amy Wohl

I heard back from both John Robb, the COO of Userland.com, and Dan Bricklin, of Trellix.  They take very different approaches.  This is not at all wrong – it’s just that it’s probably more appropriate, in each case, for different kinds of users.

Robb told me “look at these links.”  He’s assuming that I’m self-sufficient and I’ll take it from there.  I hasten to add that whenever I’ve asked him or Userland for help, I’ve always gotten some. I’d guess I’m not the only non-programmer user they’ve got.

Dan Bricklin designs software for consumers.  He assumes that it has to be usable out of the box and accessible from the user interface. Because interfaces are a key concern for him, he spent quite a bit of time writing back and forth to me and eventually posted his own article on the subject.  Read on.

From John Robb At Userland

Amy,

There is currently a search plug-in for Manila and a third party search tool for Radio available. (These are the Userland blogging products.)

Here are the links for Manila and Radio search:

Manila: http://frontier.userland.com/stories/storyReader$3041

Radio:  MarkPaschal (Mark's tool does much more than just search) http://markpasc.org/code/kit/

John
jrobb@userland.com

EDITORIAL NOTE:  If you go to these sites you will find instructions for tools which may be used with Radio and Manila.  (Confession:  I didn’t know they were there – obviously – and I don’t think I would be willing to do this amount of work to use them.)  On the other hand, they’re free and I bet they work.  Userland has always built good tools. 

Amy

There Is A Difference Between Programmers And Users

Dan Bricklin sent me a note about the difference between programmers and users. 

He sent me to a site where he could see someone in trouble, trying to do something beyond his understanding. He points out

 “They (the instructions) are beyond anything a normal person could be expected to do in an "easy to use" product. Even as a programmer I had better really want the feature to take a chance doing it.

Amy, as you know, most people have problems even figuring out how to use tables in Word. Many people still tab over instead of setting margins. Styles are beyond them.

There is a reason programmers are well paid. Not everybody can or will do it. Programming is a very error-prone business. Most systems are very intolerant of errors (typos included) and most people don't know how to debug nor have the patience to do it.

It's like saying to a normal person "Just run 10 miles to the store, carry the gallon of milk back, and swim a few miles after that." Fine for an athlete in great shape, but not for people in normal shape -- they could do it but they won't. Or "Just play this on the piano, transposing it while you read based on the key I'm playing in. Here's a book on piano playing and transposing, and a tape of me playing in different keys." Fine for a trained musician, unlikely for most regular people, even if they took some lessons as a child. Most people could do it if their life depended upon it but not if they had anything else of interest more important to spend their time and energy on. 

Dan

Dan, This is exactly my point and John Robb, who I like quite a bit, provided (of course!) the techie point of view in answering the search question. He said "you can do that on Radio," and sent me a link to the instructions.  They are pages long!

You know, what I had in mind when I asked the question, was do you have a program, accessed by a button or other user friendly control, for this feature and where is it.  Not can I modify the program to add the feature.

But in the developers’ world, I suspect that it may seem insulting to provide more than just the information you need to proceed.  Perhaps it’s assumed you’ll ask for help if you need it.  Users are coming from such a different place it’s hard to explain the differences across the great divide.

Microsoft once told me they went to making videotapes of users in the usability lab just so the developers would see that the users didn’t, couldn’t “get it,” and it wasn’t just a marketing fantasy to want interfaces designed another way.

To me, the goal is to design a piece of software that someone who has never seen before can intuitively approach, figure out, and use.  In fact, that's how I test software first -- can I figure out how to use it before someone shows me and before I read the "instructions."  Very few products actually pass the test. 

Amy

Dan had the bright idea of offering me a piece from Dave Winer at Userland’s own Davenet on usability http://davenet.userland.com/2000/12/22/aBriefUserInterfaceManifesto

...We all go through this, at a superficial level we think we're designing for users, but no matter how hard we try, we're designing for who we think the user is, and that means, sadly, that we're designing for ourselves. Until you prove that it's usable by other people, your software is certainly not designed for them... Dan added, A little more. I've been listening to Dave Winer over the years, and I think he's right when he advocates for simpler standards rather than more complex if you want lots of people to adopt them. For example, "The only way to get rid of lock-in is to make it easy to be compatible.

(http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/03/31#moreSoapPolitics)

Dan wants to agree with Dave Winer on this point about simplicity, because he then wants to apply it to users and user interfaces. Dan continues, as I think Dave has been pointing out at various times, if something is too complex, there is a big drop off in terms of users vs. something simpler. There is a big barrier when you go from "discoverable in the UI" to "must read the documentation or copy a working implementation". There is another big barrier when you go from filling out forms or choosing from lists to "programming" (composing things of simpler, abstract building blocks that have logic and are bug-prone when assembled). Then there is the barrier Dave talks about above, such as going from "simple one page spec" to "huge, complex documentation to understand and follow". If we say the drop off is a factor of 10% at each step, if all (100%) potential users can use a good discoverable UI, then 10% would go to the trouble of reading doc or figuring out how to imitate a working product. 1% would be willing to program, and only 0.1% would be willing to program with an "O'Reilly sized" book. 

Dan

What’s In Trellix Now?

Dan notes the answer is search is available only if their partner offers it, Trellix doesn’t offer it themselves.  The initial weblog is single, not multi-user.  The idea is to preserve a single point of view.  (So, not surprisingly, I can do more with Manila/Radio right now – it may be harder for me to figure out but it’s more mature and it has rich functionality and third party developers.)

I think because blogging is so empowering -- it lets you write and post and get reactions so directly -- people want to DO other things in the web in a similar way.  I'm not sure they mean they want to do it in a blog.  They may really be remarking on the perceived usability of blogging versus other kinds of applications.

I guess that leads to a $64 question:  Can you have a very easy to use interface (a la blogging) which still has very rich functionality or does access to very rich function always require, at some point, skill and training?  I don't think there is a single answer to this question, but I'd love to know what you think. 

Amy

Amy,

What you are asking for is for just one use of blogging, and not one we are aiming at in the upcoming release. As Ray Ozzie and others have been saying recently, one of the beauties of a blog is that only one person controls all of what is said. There are, though, times when you want to integrate in the threads off of it (as you say, to morph simple blogging into a Lotus Notes equivalent). We'll address that in the future if our customers ask. Luckily, there are various "small matter of programming" solutions (paste a little HTML here and there...) that can always be used, but I'm ignoring that. We're happy we can get what we think will be a great basic blogging implementation where you can say what you want better than with other tools (because of the rich text/images, and the ease of). 

Dan

Dan did write an article on why users don’t program, inspired in part by our conversations.  You can find it at: http://www.bricklin.com/wontprogram.htm

I really like this article.  I particularly like the progression from one type of programming paradigm to another and their relative acceptability to users.

While it is often thought that "real" programmers like real programming environments (my husband, for instance, is perfectly happy in MF Assembler, which is pretty grim), most programmers seem to become pretty happy moving up to graphical user interfaces and visual environments where they choose from a list of "correct" choices.  I don't think it is only users that can be more productive when they are better supported.

I believe there is a direct relationship between the ease of use of a product or environment and the number of users it attracts.  I also think that how deeply the users take advantage of the environment's capabilities is also a function of how they are offered.  Users don't like to play hide and seek. 

Amy

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