Good video of Ableton head of design Ed Macovaz

[Tarekith]

I thought it was interesting that they put so much effort into the training aspect, making sure the resources were there to teach people how to use a new instrument. Also how that same mindset led them to host their own conference, the Loop event later this month.

You're welcome to disagree, but I thought some people here might find these interesting since they relate directly to Ableton. If you don't have something constructive to add to the thread, please take your comments elsewhere as the forum guidelines state.

[Angstrom]

That's very true, it is interesting to see the strategy - educating buyers and owners on how to interact with a new instrument and how to consider starting a project.

However, the problem with shining a light on strategies like this is - it illumanates the cracks in the purported strategy. If the stated intent was to target those users who worked all day on a computer and wanted to step away from it at night - then some decisions and implementations suddenly look very odd.

Some of the things which have been implemented simply don't fit with that stated intent, which either means it went wrong somehow, or that that are opposing intents at work. In which case - a more interesting story is available to be told.

Lets say our new product is an automatic sliding door, our stated intent is to create user understanding of how easy this product is to use. Simply step up and it will open. Now we discover on release that the door does indeed open automatically as described, but there are some edge cases we missed. For some people they must actually edit code to get our new door to open. Editing code is actually worse than a door handle, so we have made a mistake.

Now the interesting story is : what do we do to address our issues. How do we respond in a timely manner so that our stakeholders feel included in a process. How do we catch the edgecases and prevent similar issues arrising in future.

In the video Ed tells us that Ableton did a giant code audit to resolve historic issues with the L8 codebase, that sound good - but we still see strategic issues arise in the current product. I want to see lessons carried forward. I don't need to see a hint of complacency about resolved issues when glaring new ones are evident. That to me implies the codebase may well be in better shape, but the strategy underpinning the stated one of education is still flawed and disjointed if we take a look at the actual outcomes.

I'm sure someone will ask for an example: so i'd point at the need to edit XML files to rearrange the library so that content appears as a user wants it on the device.
During the great code-audit Ableton shifted over to Agile Software Development, with its regular release cycles to address product issues. So now we should expect to see regular updates which address such issues as the user categories proble, - if the lessons learned from the big code audit / Ahile shift are now being carried forward.

I'd like to hear a story about addressing ommisions, new strategies for responding to these sort of unexpected mistakes. That's the sort of thing I can actually learn from. Tell me how to resolve a mistake well, show me how your strategy prevents those mistakes made again in future.

[zigzag]

During the great code-audit Ableton shifted over to Agile Software Development, with its regular release cycles to address product issues. So now we should expect to see regular updates which address such issues as the user categories proble, - if the lessons learned from the big code audit / Ahile shift are now being carried forward.

I'd like to hear a story about addressing ommisions, new strategies for responding to these sort of unexpected mistakes. That's the sort of thing I can actually learn from. Tell me how to resolve a mistake well, show me how your strategy prevents those mistakes made again in future.

Well, Agile isn't going to do much good if you need to focus on quality of the overall product which is extremely modal by design. This methodology allows developers to focus on a feature, often ignoring specs of the overall system they are developing. So I am not surprised that we see new bugs arising while new features or re-design takes place.
They need to bring in more testing strategies & resources, clearly.

[pencilrocket]

The funny part is he learned the "creativeness" in the university, talking about the definition of the creative and artistic, and trying to teach how to be "creative" in that way. So interesting.

idk but it reminds me of this topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edyIhTIir_c

[zigzag]

The funny part is he learned the "creativeness" in the university, talking about the definition of the creative and artistic, and trying to teach how to be "creative" in that way. So interesting.

idk but it reminds me of this topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edyIhTIir_c

awesome!