Kid Pix - The Early Years by Craig Hickman
Metadata
- Author: Craig Hickman
- Full Title: Kid Pix - The Early Years
- Category: #articles
- URL: http://red-green-blue.com/kid-pix-the-early-years
Highlights added March 12, 2024 at 10:11 AM
1. (The Prime Directive) The program should be extremely easy to use. No manual should be needed and program features should "explain themselves" through use. All tasks should be able to be performed in the simplest, most straightforward way. The program should go out of its way to meet the user. (View Highlight)
- As long as The Prime Directive is not violated, every opportunity should be taken to make the program surprising and satisfying to use. No opportunity should be missed. The process of making a picture should be as important as the picture produced. (View Highlight)
As I added new features to Kid Pix, I would try them out on Ben. Anything he had trouble with would be changed. The customer was always right. One day I took a number of computers to Ben's pre-school and tried it out on the children there, most of whom had not used computers before. Within ten minutes of having the children use the program I had accumulated a long list of small user interface changes for the program. (View Highlight)
People were going out of their way to shake my hand. I even made a trip to Japan where I was honored, interviewed and offered much sushi. It seemed that Kid Pix had touched people in a way the software seldom does. (View Highlight)
New highlights added March 26, 2024 at 11:17 PM
every opportunity should be taken to make the program surprising and satisfying to use. (View Highlight)
The process of making a picture should be as important as the picture produced. (View Highlight)
The program should be open ended. Premade graphics should be modifiable by the user. (View Highlight)
Users are very smart and can tell quickly when someone is trying to cover up a lame program with flashy graphics. A poor program gets dull very soon no matter how trendy the interface is. (View Highlight)
As I added new features to Kid Pix, I would try them out on Ben. Anything he had trouble with would be changed. The customer was always right. One day I took a number of computers to Ben's pre-school and tried it out on the children there, most of whom had not used computers before. Within ten minutes of having the children use the program I had accumulated a long list of small user interface changes for the program. (View Highlight)