A Goddamned Shame

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard this phrase:

This interface was designed by my grandmother. She died last week. Do you like it?

I'd have exactly one nickel, courtesy of a former coworker, MP.

MP said this to illustrate the kind of question you should never ask your focus group. It's the kind of joke that gets better the more you think about it.

I worked with MP at CorpWorld before he went on to better things. This was before the purge.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who could have you thinking about their words more than MP. He'd say something and about an hour later, you'd get the joke. Frequently it would be at your expense.

MP's default setting was full-blown contempt for stupid things. CorpWorld was an environment that gave him no reason to change.

But contempt has its price - MP was deskbound because his sense of humor didn't endear him to clients who were neck deep in the kind of behavior he was making fun of.

I always thought that was a great shame - because CorpWorld so desperately needs to laugh at itself. There is so much asinine behavior going on in large organizations, it’s difficult to focus on it. You could argue I avoid doing so, just so I can function. MP was the constant reminder that much of what we did just changed the velocity of our personal hamster wheel.

Observations like that are useful, because they force you to step back and think. MP's wit was not reserved for others - User Experience designers were a favorite target.

Despite being a valid profession, user design is awash with charlatans and quacks. People whose messianic view of themselves blinds them to practical considerations. People like Dustin Curtis. They have the TRUTH, yet the world refuses to see.

I'm talking about people who self style themselves Pimpformation Architects or people like ErikDahl:

"I am equally at home in the worlds of theory and praxis, I often lull myself to sleep at night with thoughts about cultural-semiotics, information bricolage, theories and implications of the social self, as well as concepts of "social-themeparking."

MP's commentary:

I fail to embrace the UX community in part because of the showy, self-important, self-promoting types littered across the Internet with titles like "user experience guru" and "passionate user experience advocate." ...off the top of my head, I don't know any developers who parade around the Internet as "object-oriented guru" and "passionate regex God."

That kind of pushback is useful. Instructive, even.

I used to be (in a very small way) one of those people. I would go into meetings as if I was there to save the world. I can save you, if you will only let me. Several large projects later - I began to understand the total tonnage of what my employers were up against.

If the back end system is a dinosaur - there's precious little that can be done on the front end. Attempts at modern UI will be hamstrung, because they expect modern middleware (that CorpWorld does not possess). MP would point this out at length.

[Central application] doesn't run web services... none of what we'll want is possible until this changes.

I would always argue that we'd do the good we could - but looking back it's hard to find fault with MP's thinking. Deck chairs were rearranged, but the gash in the workflow's hull remained. The good you can do is limited by the extent to which you understand the problem.

Which is why the person who can immediately and unflinchingly identify a problem is so valuable. Unfortunately, they just don't make a lot of friends.

MP and I would email back and forth off and on. I'm terrible and keeping in contact - but MP would send informal surveys. Even sent me a birthday card - though I can't imagine how he would have found that out.

My team leader was better at keeping in touch - made it sound like MP was having trouble getting the job he wanted. That having taken his most recent leap - he felt isolated.

CorpWorld does that to people - you are plug and play components. Most meetings start with introductions "I'm so and so's replacement." Being in a room with people you know - or have known - is a rare thing.

MP had made the full blown jump, everybody was new - and his chosen specialty wasn't hiring him. It was clearly a rough ride.

But obviously I didn't know the half of it.

This morning - one of MP's coworkers emailed us to tell us the other half.

A few weeks ago, MP was up for a big job interview and was preparing like mad. He'd done mock interviews to prepare and (as always) did so without notes. MP is brilliant that way. The stuff he's interested in, he knows inside out and backwards.

MP could be acerbic, but his intelligence and drive are unmistakable. Surely no employer could miss that.

However the interview went - MP clearly was not satisfied. He went home and called family to say it had not gone well.

Then nothing for two days.

I don't have the specifics - but it is abundantly clear that shortly after his interview, MP killed himself.

I started looking for the details before realizing that they would do no good.

The world has one less bright and funny person.

I'd said before that there are things that are immune to all reason.

This is one of them.