Two hours continued. . .

As promised in my last post here is part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Vassil Roussev from the University of New Orleans.  These thoughts are listed in no particular order, but are grouped by topic.  Yesterday I posted some of Dr. Roussev’s thoughts on UI design.  In this post we are going to move into application development.  Feel free to take notes.  I sure did.

Dr. Roussev on Development:

1.  There are a tremendous numbers of opportunities within your platform, be careful not to chase them. You cannot exploit them all effectively. Focus cannot be overemphasized.

2.  Reinventing is not a bad thing. Succesful technologies are continually reinvented until their time comes.  The time must come. Technologies are reinvented until their time appears.

3.  Bill Gates never actually created anything. He just made exceptional packaging for existing technologies. Culmination is lucrative.

4.  Simple things just tend to work well.  You will do well to remember this.

5.  Did I mention Focus?

6.  There is a huge difference between playing and working.  Resist the urge to create a toy.  Again, remember Clippy.

7.  Every action, function, and feature must be necessary and have a visual metaphor.  Everything.  This cannot be overstated.

8.  Creative resources are necessary to successful development, but you can’t take your eye off of them for a second. Keep track of their movements.

9.  Let users drive your development and feature set to an extent. They will ask for what is important over and over and over. Not everyone is right, but be sure to listen for the ones who are.

10.  Be humble. Be confident but be humble.  Pride precedes dissaster.

Next:  Dr. Roussev on ideabreaker