Her Code Got Humans On The Moon – And Invented Software Itself:
The story of Margaret Hamilton not only serves as great source of inspiration for woman in tech. but also to those who tend to walk a different path than the others. What was considered minute, soon ended up becoming center of attention as software oriented approach after the apparent success of Apollo launch, was placed emphasize on, and towards the implementation of software centric system. A mother whose intention was to serve her family first, and make a difference is commendable; however in addition to the heart touching story, what caught my attention was the stubbornness. Sometimes its ok to believe in yourself and be stubborn. Had it not been for her toying around and discovering the potential problem with the simulator regarding the P01 switch control, maybe they wouldn’t have been able to find a fix within 9-hours. This taught me the importance of putting things to the test, and always opting for a back-up, rather than putting things to luck. A good system always has back-up incase of failure. In general, I found a confidence booster through this story of hers, and made me realize missed venues where I could have had been a trend setter instead of being a follower. This class allows me to build by will, and it is what I want to utilize to break and make just like Margaret!
Attractive things Work Better:
The reading discusses the universal cognitive bias where attractive items are interpreted as easy to use. Intelligently designed products allow producers to veil the flaws behind the curtain of attractiveness that products imposes onto its operators. In addition, that veil not only covers over the flaws, but also does the same to hide stressful, bottle-neck, and irritating situations as per what was described in the reading. As mentioned in the reading, ”pleasurable aspects of the design will make them more tolerant of difficulties and problems in the interface”. Come to think of it, I completely agree with this. Computers, despite complex algorithmic runtimes and clock-timings coupled with rising edges to get the minimal task carried out to a human mind may seem stressful. For those who develop, not so much so, but even then to process everything in our short term memory, can overwhelm any of the mind on the planet earth. Even its creator’s. Therefore we interact with what’s on the front-end. Even then, the interface differs. This is where I noticed contrast between iOS and Android operating systems. Both are very well capable, however, the minimalistic flat icon layout of iOS seems so clean and smooth, that we end up blaming android as a flawed system, even though both considerably have their own downsides. Moving away from non-tangible to tangible, the minimalistic aluminum body of Apple’s products make them pleasing to eyes and touch, despite the heaps missing array of sensors and functionalities that you can find on a 200$ android phone. To make my point clear, there is preference for both products, but Apple manages to hide its downsides with better design philosophy. The reading does argue ‘Beyond Beauty’, and to that I think ‘reliability’ is the word I would reply back with. Not just the functionality, but a reliable functionality is also a core component, without which the age of product would short live, and its beauty would lead it to be decorated on a shelf. Personally relating to it, my Parker ballpoint, after running out of ink, became of no such use. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the reading and believe, something reliable, functional, and soothing for the eye makes for a good product.