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Rob Relyea - XAMLified

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Software Should: “catch your eye and make you want to use it”.

I stole this phrase from a comment by ch00kz on the Bend text editor project on CodePlex.

I think this is something very solid to build upon. I am very big on aesthetics and this program does catch my eye and it makes me "Want" to use it.
Here are a few things i think could make this much better…

Bend – An Attractive, Inventive Text Editor

This project, a few weeks since the first download was available already has 14,000 downloads. That may have been helped by:

  1. nice Ux
  2. a nice article in LifeHacker: Bend is an Attractive, Inventive Text Editor
  3. clickonce installation on their codeplex page.

Catch their eye, make a wave…

It might be a good strategy for your software…but don’t forget to satisfy more than catching their eye. If you make them “want” to use it, they’ll give you feedback on what else your software needs to do to win their heart.

Commercial

Try out Silverlight or WPF to make your wave.

Published Sunday, August 08, 2010 6:31 PM by Rob_Relyea
Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

# Dew Drop – August 9, 2010 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew@ Monday, August 09, 2010 9:33 AM

Pingback from  Dew Drop – August 9, 2010 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

by Dew Drop – August 9, 2010 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

# re: Software Should: “catch your eye and make you want to use it”.@ Monday, August 09, 2010 12:59 PM

Aaron-

My phrase "but don’t forget to satisfy more than catching their eye" was a warning to not be all look and no functionality.

Yes, min/max as text, seems very odd. Personally, I really enjoy Soluto's approach to that (http://soluto.com).

Cookbook is a good idea. Yes, not a new request.

Thanks, ROb

by Rob_Relyea

# re: Software Should: “catch your eye and make you want to use it”.@ Tuesday, August 17, 2010 7:20 PM

flipping hard to read this font, background color combination... retina burner... content might be useful but time to leave to save the eyesight

by Tatran

# re: Software Should: “catch your eye and make you want to use it”.@ Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:28 PM

How can you have 14,000 downloads when the project hasn't been published?

http://bend.codeplex.com/

"This project is not yet published

If you are a coordinator or developer on this project, please sign in to access the project."

by RichardD

# re: Software Should: “catch your eye and make you want to use it”.@ Wednesday, August 18, 2010 6:16 PM

@Tatran-

Sorry for the color scheme.  I hope to change soon, but I'm afraid that I need to rereview all my posts first.

Recently, I have begun to consider (again) jumping to self-hosting of my blog.

Likely then, I will pick a decent theme.

@RichardD-

I'm not sure where the project went. It was definitely available, then disappeared completely, then began working again, but is "not yet published".  Not sure of the issues behind all of that.

Thanks, Rob

by Rob_Relyea

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