The world is filled with the beautiful, elegant offspring that come out of the marriage of different disciplines. Often the person creating such a work is called a genius, although to him or her it may seem a straightforward matter of applying a solution from one part of their life to another. I want to work with people who have rich and diverse experiences in their lives: the odds are just so much better that something incredible might happen.

And so it’s a mystery to me why it is exceedingly rare for a developer to know anything about being a consumer of the software she or he creates. When it comes to user interface, graphical design, human interaction or any other element of the user experience, the majority of professional developers I meet have not taken the time to learn what these disciplines are about and what they have to offer. It remains such an enigma to me because so many of these same professionals do have varied backgrounds and draw on other perspectives to inform and guide their software. Like the woman who started out in chemistry, worked in a lab, was appointed to analyze the results using a computer, found she liked computers more than chemistry, and decided to change her career. There are things she learned, for example about the scientific method, that make her an excellent developer. But it is hard to find many developers whose paths have crossed disciplines like graphic arts and design, or studied how normal human beings interact with objects or software applications.

Ian Voyce has a wonderful short exposé-cum-confessional, The 7 signs your UI was created by a programmer. Read and wince: been there, done that, billed the client.

Do you suspect a programmer may have put together the terrible user interface on that “enterprise” software you’re forced to use every day? There are some give-away indicators. Look out for them in your software, hunt down the developer and force them to read a book about user interface design. If you’re suitably senior, force them to a) improve it, or even better b) get someone with real UI experience to fix it. More…

I would prefer both options a and b: have the developer learn what UI design is about and work with a real UI designer.

One place such a developer could start is Bill Buxton’s book Sketching User Experiences. If you’re not familiar with Bill Buxton, do yourself a favor an watch the first few minutes of his keynote address at MIX09.