Mitch is the guy who invented Lotus 1-2-3; he’s been around the block once or twice. The book is a worthwhile read for anyone involved in a team software development effort, or about to embark on one.

Dreaming in Code was a Christmas gift from a colleague, and I suspect that her choice of books is not coincidental. See, we’re starting work on this major new software project. I am not at liberty to disclose much about it, so I’ll call it Project Luceen for now, after my daughter’s middle name. We haven’t starting coding yet — the developers are wrapping up work on another project and I am finalizing the user interface and writing the specs. But while reading the book, the following passage on page 260 caught my attention:

“Success is a by-product of iron-willed restraint — a choice firmly made and vociferously reasserted at every challenge to limit a project’s scope. Where you find software success stories, you invariably find people who are good at saying no. [,,,] the successful programmer thrives because of, not in spite of, constraints.”

Most people think of featuritis as the constant adding of new features, from the meaningful to the superfluous. Kind of like the artist who does not know when to stop working on a painting. But it’s more than that: featuritis is not having a solidly defined set of features before development starts. This is partly what dogged SuperLab 4.0’s development. In the case of Chandler, the feature set was a moving target.

After reading the book, I went back to the specs document and swapped items 1 and 2! The screen snapshot below is of the top of the very first page — yes, even before the table of contents.

Sounds simple, but the design of StimTracker’s front panel went through more than 30 iterations before we settled on the final design. Here are six of these intermediate designs, in chronological order.

First Cut: Analog

StimTracker handles seven analog inputs that need to have their sensitivity or threshold adjusted. The original design called for the use of linear potentiometers. “Mediator” was the project name used until a final name was chosen.

Then Came Digital

It didn’t take long before we realized that digital was not only nicer, but absolutely needed for one simple reason: repeatability. With linear pots, if someone accidentally changed the settings (not difficult when you have seven of them), it would take a stroke of luck to reposition the pot exactly where it was. Digital control relieves researchers of one less variable to deal with.

All Blue

In the next two designs, the red was dropped and the march towards minimalism started. Also, the StimTracker name was adopted.

Maximum Minimalism

In this design, we explored the use of icons but decided against it. We also “minimalized” the design even further.

Why?

It’s simple, really. With all due to respect to Samsung’s Instinct and other iPhone wannabe recent offerings, the iPhone currently has no competition. Despite some bugs, the gap between it and the next closest competitor is so vast, it’s not even funny. Garmin’s Nuviphone and phones based on Google’s Android platform look promising. But until they ship, iPhone rules.

With Cedrus’ sharpened focus on design, does it make sense for our employees to use crapware? Hardly. No university teaches programming using pen and paper — you’ve got to cut your teeth on a real computer. Even something as basic as tying your shoes can’t be learned by listening to someone telling you how it’s done. You need to practice.

The same goes for design. You cannot develop a sharp sense of design unless you are using the absolute best examples of good design. Crapware, or even second best, will not cut it.

No Tolerance

And the last reason to offer free iPhones is this: the best developers and the best employees are those who have little tolerance for poorly designed stuff, software included. They didn’t know it at the time (they will now!), but that was one of the primary reasons why I switched the company from Windows back to Mac OS two years ago.

It is well known that Mac users expect better designed programs from developers. Mac developers will get lambasted for minor sins that their Windows counterparts regularly get away with. The same logic applies to iPhone users: the level of expectations is high and tolerance for poorly designed mobile apps is very, very low. If you don’t believe me, just see what happened to Stevens Creek Software when they ported their TripLog/1040 app from Palm OS to iPhone.

It’s a Computing Platform

If you have Windows developers who have never used a Mac, would you ask them to start developing a Mac application overnight? Even if, hypothetically, they come up to speed on Xcode, Interface Builder, and other Mc OS tools in an instant, they will still not be able to develop a great app because they have not previously been immersed in Macs and Mac OS culture.

With the release of the iPhone SDK and App Store, iPhone is set to become much more than a mere talking tool. It’s an emerging computing platform that will compete with handheld game devices and open new opportunities. When the day comes when Cedrus needs to develop an iPhone app, our developers must be already immersed in the iPhone culture. It takes time to “get it”.

Not Just for Developers

And last but not least, everyone at Cedrus gets a free iPhone instead of just developers, for two reasons. First, to avoid creating two classes of employees. Everyone’s contribution is important. The developers write code. But without the non-developers, we might as well pack and go home.

And second, being a small company everyone’s opinion is solicited on planned UI designs. The non-developers provide a different and very valuable point of view and will often pinpoint design problems that a developer would miss. Ignore the non-developers at your company at your own risk!

The latest in Motorola’s line of music phones, the ROKR E8, has a new feature that (believe it or not) rivals the iPhone. The innovation is a little piece of tech called “localized haptic feedback,” which makes pushing a button on the touch screen feel like actually pressing a button. This is achieved by a small vibration under the spot where you touch, and feels like the solid surface really is a button. It’s a tactile capability that we at CH have often wished for and the experience of using it is nothing short of amazing—upon demoing it, I really thought it was a real button (and I’m not easily fooled).

I had already went by the Motorola booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center and had planned on spending my second day at CES’ other location, the Sands Expo. But this, I had to experience. I had to feel a “real button”. So I went back to the Convention Center.

See, when I read the above, I expected that, as I use different apps like phone, music, or camera, that I’d feel different bumps on the surface, as described in the Apple patent:

But the ROKR E8 is nothing like that. Essentially, the buttons portion of the phone is a single, solid plastic surface. Different icons are illuminated depending on the app, as shown below:

When you press one of the illuminated icons, the entire plastic surface depresses and you feel a vibration. No depression is felt when you press anything else (save for a bug that I reported to the Motorola rep).

I felt let down. The Cool Hunting post was overly nice to this clunky phone. Being able to control whether you feel a button depression or not is nothing new. In fact, I had looked at using piezo switches 5-6 years ago for possible use in our response pads. Piezo switches let you vary the activation force that is needed. All Motorola added was a sense of vibration when the plastic surface is depressed.

Big deal.