In software development, creation of digital products is a creative undertaking reminiscent of painting, writing, or any other type of art. for us, this became especially clear when our team recently recorded a brief screencast to demonstrate one of our latest software products. This experience showed us the intrinsic labor of the last productive move in producing impactful products, and revealed it as a catalyst for innovation across all industries.
The Power of a One-Minute Demo
We generated a static version of a one-minute screencast which showed how to use the application in the same way a typical user would do using an app, as a normal user would when performing a short task. In this brief video, we condensed nearly a series of man-months of work contributed by our team in dozens steps into an intuitively understandable user walk-through. What blew our minds was that a mature software instantiation which lasted for months could be compressed into just 60 seconds. This brief demonstration was the result of a cumulative effort over those many hundreds of man-hours of engineering, design, and refinement. Our teams’ complex work was condensed into a simple flow of interaction, such that the underlying complexity did not come into the foreground. The video, visually straightforward, hid a rich and sophisticated creative effort. The scenario of how to articulate those experiences, all those late nights, every brainstorming session, every burst of genius, every sacrifice, that of our peers was almost unattainable. The journey from concept to product—filled with iterations, pivots, and small victories—was flattened into a linear sequence of clicks and taps.
Drawing Parallels with Other Art Forms
It can take one year to write a good manuscript of 30,000 to 50,000 words, and then perhaps as long as 18 months to polish it with revisions. However, a reader can quickly finish reading the final result in just a few hours.The same principle holds true to visual arts. An artist might invest two years meticulously crafting a painting, experimenting with concepts, and layering colors. But, instead of giving that product a valuable life of utility, a buyer might use the painting as wall decor on a beach house, using years of the artist’s labor for the purpose of just decoration. In both cases, the understated appearance of the work reflects the intricate and long creative journey underneath. Also in the field of software development, the viewer or user gets the final product at one time, in some cases even before an understanding of the development process or purpose is formed.
Embracing the Creative Process
Software developers create from scratch and, using nothing more than imagination, there is a deliverable that is useful and easy to use. The process begins as an idea and through an increasing number of revision and trial stages it reaches a conclusion.The act of imagining itself so often goes unacknowledged. Although engineers are stereotypically expert in a technical field and carry out exact operations, they are creative as any painter or writer. Every coder, analyst, QA engineer, and designer has an artist in him/her. The creative capacity needed in software development is enormous. Unlike static artifacts, software is a system that can be operationalized in different environments, and adapted to develop with the user. This fusion of creativity and engineering is incredibly complex.
Simplicity for Users, Complexity for Developers
The relevance of software development complexity is irrelevant. Products remain clean, simple, and intuitive-to-use yet behind remain decades of laborious iterative human-centered design, problem solving, and engineering expertise put into service presented in a minimal number of effort.Every clean interface really conceals a compressive number of effort. Good design erases complexity, bad design adds it. Simplification requires both inventive ability and technical dexterity, with such that the hardware appears to perform magic in the presence of the user who knows nothing about how it actually is made and put together.
Storytelling: Breathing Life into Software
In a product demo a mundane item can gain a captivating quality when its creation story is told. This narrative power up the product or service with a vital, almost palpable energy that resonates deeply with people, allowing them to connect on a more profound level. Steve Jobs understood this well—Apple’s storytelling transformed products like the iPod and iPhone into cultural icons. Narrative has the power to turn a software tool into an object of meaning. Every product has a story, waiting patiently to be told and nestled amongst lessons, excitement and hard work. As we pull out the humanity and the creativity within us, we form stronger bonds. Storytelling gets there at the level of the deep human desire for meaning and value.
Fulfillment in Creation and Consumption
Artist satisfaction in any area of the arts is part of its reception by the audience. A painter gets a sense of satisfaction when his/her art is exhibited, while an author feels approved when his/her books are read. Similarly, engineers feel fulfilled when people use and value the products they build.Creation is an act of hope, aiming to positively impact others’ lives. While creative work is rewarding, the goal is not personal satisfaction, but the improvement of the “other world”. As soon as users understand that the “tool” “talks” creativity they become more immersed, and the act of consumption becomes an interactive and meaningful engagement. In the loop, as we do, our work has a full circle outcome in that the artifacts we create are highly valued by other people. Software development is truly creative at the core of it. Simple, valuable products don’t materialize from thin air. Natural people puts their lives into the creation, design, and engineering of the technology we depend upon. We owe it to the great thinkers that populate our world through code and pixels, the ones whose artistry is always on display behind every screen, ready to be openended through narrative.
