Software as Art

I often have some difficulty in making a business case for a good user experience. To play off Potter Stewart, I can’t define why experience is important, but I know it’s valuable when I see it. In the cold, technical world of software development, it’s even more difficult to reconcile. Which is why I like video’s like this so much.

A great experience gives us a very personal connection with the object we are interacting with. We experience art, we experience places, we experience things, and we also experience software. As the web becomes more and more important in our daily lives, the experiences we provide through the applications we build can have a very real effect on the users. The personal connection between the user and the application makes them more likely to come back, more likely to share it with friends and family, and more likely to make it a part of their life. That has some valuable brand implications as well as user retention benefits.

The more people interact with applications, the more chances we have to put our artistic vision into those applications. With the technologies that exist today, the line between art and software is blurring. We can immerse users in our application, give them full control, and let our creativity shine. If Leonardo DaVinci was alive today, I think he’d be a Flash developer.

Found via Items dugg by mdowney

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  3. Microsoft’s New Internet Strategy
  4. Google v. Microsoft
  • http://www.congresscheck.com Quiet Dreamer

    To set foot on the soil of the asteroids, to lift by hand a rock from the Moon, to observe Mars from a distance of several tens of kilometers, to land on its satellite or even on its surface, what can be more fantastic? From the moment of using rocket devices a new great era will begin in astronomy: the epoch of the more intensive study of the firmament.

  • http://www.congresscheck.com Happy Contender

    It ended… With his body changed to light, A star that burns forever in that sky.” Anonymous: North American Indian

  • http://www.seriestube.com series on the tube

    great stuff, keep it coming. Good job, Ryan