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Four Characteristics of Polite Software

Polite software is interested in users by understanding their motivations and making them feel important. It is also deferential by allowing users to work flexibly without forcing certain workflows. Additionally, polite software is perceptive by observing user behaviors to understand their needs and form deeper relationships. Finally, polite software is well informed by presenting relevant data but also opportunities to assist and delight beyond the current task.

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Rosen Anthony
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64 views2 pages

Four Characteristics of Polite Software

Polite software is interested in users by understanding their motivations and making them feel important. It is also deferential by allowing users to work flexibly without forcing certain workflows. Additionally, polite software is perceptive by observing user behaviors to understand their needs and form deeper relationships. Finally, polite software is well informed by presenting relevant data but also opportunities to assist and delight beyond the current task.

Uploaded by

Rosen Anthony
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Four Characteristics of Polite Software

1. Polite software is interested in you.

People, you’ll be familiar with his core recommendation for


getting people to like you and be genuinely interested in them.
Understand what drives them, ask them the right questions, learn
what makes them happy or sad, and let them know they’re
important to you. When others pay attention to us, we are more
likely to enjoy them.

2. Polite software is deferential to you.

Most software is not deferential to users. The vast majority of


applications require you to work a certain way, just because that
is how they’ve been programmed. Think of forms on Web sites
that force you fill in all fields even if you’re not comfortable
providing all of that information Web sites that don’t support
basic gestures like pinch to zoom, and more painfully, the way
Windows sometimes prevents your restarting your computer.

3. Polite software is perspective.

Humans beings are the most observant species on the planet. As


we interact with one another, we observe each other’s
behaviors, large and small, which helps us to understand
people’s habits, likes and dislikes, wants and needs, and form
deeper relationships. Some of the most popular applications
today have attained such popularity because they are deeply
perceptive of our behaviors and surprise us by providing
information we didn’t even realize we needed.
4. Polite software is well informed.

Most software presents only the specific data that is strictly


relevant to the user’s current task. However, presenting just the
most pertinent data for the current task may mean you’re
missing out on key opportunities to assist and delight users.

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