{"id":171,"date":"2021-02-27T14:48:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T14:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/?p=171"},"modified":"2021-02-27T15:03:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T15:03:22","slug":"apps-humans-2-descendants-of-the-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/apps-humans-2-descendants-of-the-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Apps &#038; Humans #2: Descendants of the Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/apps-and-humans-1-personality-traits-of-our-software\/\">Apps &amp; Humans #1<\/a>, we talked about human personality traits that we can assign to applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This time we go in the opposite direction, identifying <strong>features specific to applications<\/strong> that we can reverse engineer and transform into desirable <strong>human behaviors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do we want from an app?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Using apps for so many years, we\u2019ve developed certain <strong>preferences and expectations<\/strong> about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically, we want an app to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Have a <strong>user interface<\/strong> that is <strong>intuitive<\/strong>, <strong>easy to work with, uncluttered<\/strong> by things we don\u2019t use.<\/li><li>Be <strong>performant, <\/strong>allowing us to get the <strong>results quickly, <\/strong>with the <strong>minimum amount of effort from us<\/strong>.<\/li><li>Be <strong>compatible<\/strong> with other contemporary tools and technologies.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The user interface: interaction patterns<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>In human terms, our \u201c<strong>user interface<\/strong>\u201d is about <strong>how we present ourselves<\/strong> and <strong>how we interact with others<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It starts with how we <strong>greet each other<\/strong>: from a simple \u201chi\u201d, we can perceive a message, which can be anything from \u201cI\u2019m happy to see you\u201d to \u201cI\u2019m in a bad mood, leave me alone\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a problem arises and people need our help, <strong>do we simplify life for them, or do we complicate it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the workplace, we have <strong>many interactions<\/strong> and we <strong>depend on each other<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/confusius_media_player.gif\" alt=\"Confusius Media Player\" class=\"wp-image-173\" width=\"361\" height=\"599\"\/><figcaption>A slightly confusing, non-standard user interface.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If our \u201cuser interface\u201d seems too complicated or unpredictable, people will tend to avoid us when they can and won\u2019t be so cooperative when we need their help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can choose to be \u201c<strong>user friendly<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The performance: reliability and productivity<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as we want our applications to be fast and stable, others rely on us to respect our commitments and be mindful of their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can focus on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Negotiating realistic expectations<\/strong> related to what we can deliver.<\/li><li>Making the effort to <strong>deliver on time<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>Notifying in advance<\/strong> those who are affected <strong>if we are unable to deliver<\/strong> what we agreed upon. This gives them some <strong>time to adapt and respond<\/strong> to the situation.<\/li><li>Being <strong>less of a bottleneck<\/strong> to others:<ul><li><strong>Responding to emails<\/strong> without too much delay, or at least sending a <strong>short reply<\/strong> with an estimation of when we can deliver a complete answer.<\/li><li>Sometimes we need to specifically <strong>ask<\/strong> <strong>if others are blocked<\/strong> waiting for our tasks to be finished. Human communication is never perfect and it\u2019s useful to <strong>clarify<\/strong> this, especially for long running tasks.<\/li><li>Knowing when others are dependent on our tasks, we can <strong>adjust the priority<\/strong> (or discuss priorities with the appropriate people), so that the least time is spent waiting. It also helps to <strong>avoid deadlocks<\/strong> (two parties which are blocked waiting for one another to finish their tasks).<\/li><li>Keeping in mind that there may be <strong>additional tasks<\/strong> we need to take care of, like submitting <strong>timesheet<\/strong> information, participating in various <strong>surveys<\/strong> or <strong>training sessions<\/strong> within the company. These may sometimes <strong>seem less important<\/strong>, but <strong>they are part of our job too <\/strong>and some of our colleagues (e.g. from management or accounting) <strong>depend on us<\/strong> to deliver them on time.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Sharing valuable information<\/strong> that we already have to those who need it.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/tick-talk-preparing-for-meetings\/\"><strong>Preparing for meetings<\/strong><\/a> so that everyone\u2019s time is used efficiently.<\/li><li>Doing our own research before asking for help, so that <strong>we don\u2019t ask questions which we can easily answer ourselves<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The compatibility: adaptability and cooperation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about a game you enjoyed playing 10 years ago. If you would play it today you will probably still enjoy it, but you\u2019ll realize how much <strong>things have changed<\/strong>, how some other games made better decisions in terms of user interaction, or simply how much the graphics capabilities have improved tremendously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My point is, <strong>our knowledge may become outdated<\/strong>. I think we all need to <strong>allocate some time for learning<\/strong>, to <strong>keep up with changes <\/strong>in our fields of competence and to be <strong>open<\/strong> to other tools and technologies than the ones we are used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another point is <strong>collaboration<\/strong>: we want apps to exchange files in various formats and be compatible with one another. In human terms, people are <strong>more likely to enjoy working with us<\/strong> <strong>if our<\/strong> <strong>collaboration style can accommodate theirs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusions and recommendations<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Our go-to <strong>apps can simplify work for us<\/strong> by behaving in certain ways that we expect and appreciate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By adopting some of these behaviors and pairing them with <strong>human qualities like humor or kindness<\/strong>, I believe we can <strong>make the workplace more enjoyable<\/strong> for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Apps &amp; Humans #1, we talked about human personality traits that we can assign to applications. This time we go in the opposite direction, identifying features specific to applications that we can reverse engineer and transform into desirable human behaviors. What do we want from an app? Using apps for so many years, we\u2019ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,12,3,11],"tags":[29,28,30,24,25,27,26,23,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.balancecrafters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}