Secret Life of Systems

Lifecycles of software systems that solve real world problems can be broken down into distinct phases based on where it is with respect to the problem and the eventual solution.

This article presents a taxonomy of these phases that should help you understand how each part of the lifecycle fits together.

#Engineering #Curiosity

Why I Hate Carousels

• Don’t use carousels in your UI.
• Instead, if you must stick content into little cards, let the horionztal layout wrap to additional lines.
• If you end up with too many horizontal lines of content, then you definitely have too many items that can be accessed via a horizontally panning UI. You need a different UI altogether.

#Usability #Engineering

Inclusion/Equity and Evaluating Negatives

Evaluating properties like inclusion and equity of products can’t be done through exhaustive enumeration of product outcomes. Instead we will need to increasingly rely on the controls that we place how we construct the products.

#Engineering #Inclusion and Equity

A Good API: g9

Adding more knobs doesn’t make your API more powerful.

#Engineering

The Point of a Strategy

The only useful strategy is one that reduces risks.

#Career #Engineering

Just Enough Technical Debt

Zero technical debt isn’t always the answer.

#Engineering

Code As UI: The UX of config-as-code and everything-as-code

Configuration-as-code has the same usability issues as everything else as code along with the same benefits.

#engineering

The Loss of a Virtuous Culture

Luck isn’t enough. You need a culture of virtue.

#Culture #Engineering

The Lettergrade Rule

Don’t block a code review because of minor issues that are best left to the discretion of the author.

#engineering

DARPA's Heilmeier Catechism

A set of questions help you think through and evaluate proposed projects and research programs.

#engineering