"there are well-established principles to judge which code/software architecture is better" There are very similar principles for judging which design is better (affordance, natural mapping), it's just that coders don't know those principles.
You're implying a value judgement that code is an objective discipline and design in a subjective discipline. There are aspects of visual design that are subjective. However, UX is a testable, repeatable, objective discipline that is informed by the work of cognitive science.
Yes coders have arguments... with coders. They have inside baseball arguments. It's entirely different than a designer having an argument with a coder. Often, the designer has to teach the coder the principles of design in order to even engage in a logical, productive discussion.
The overriding point I was making is that the tools like github are designed for code, not design. Our tooling inherently advantages code. It's a pain in the ass to even insert an inline image into a comment. Github isn't built for evaluating mockups and wireframes. Designers do our best to bootstrap into the tool, yes. But it's not our tool.
I'm really happy to see that Aarron's post highlights how important copy is to your success. It's super dull and tedious to get it right, but amazingly effective when done well. The post also confirms my suspicion that the highly secure "username and/or password is invalid" is a costly tradeoff.
Glad to see Persona mentioned in this thread. Full disclosure, I'm the UX Designer for Persona.
A couple of questions I have for MailChimp
* Why use usernames at all? They're a necessary evil for things like forums where users don't want to expose their real names. They are a major contributor to login failures. Email as the unique identifier is much easier to remember.
* How much pain did Mailchimp have to endure to migrate the user account that had been created via Facebook and Twitter? What copy did you use to explain? How many users did you lose?
* Would you consider implementing Persona? ;)
I do want to add a +1 to the concerns other folks have expressed about mixing the context of a personal Facebook account with a professional service like MailChimp. I see in my research one of the main concerns users have about using Sign in with Facebook is that they're unsure what will show up on their wall. Social sign in isn't right for either professional services or on the opposite side, anything that is socially questionable, like a gambling site.
I started writing a response about my experience as a designer at Mozilla and it got really long and I turned it into a blog post called "Code talks and designers don't speak the language." Thanks for inspiring me to come out of blog hibernation. http://skinnywhitegirl.com/blog/code-talks-and-designers-don...
You're implying a value judgement that code is an objective discipline and design in a subjective discipline. There are aspects of visual design that are subjective. However, UX is a testable, repeatable, objective discipline that is informed by the work of cognitive science.
Yes coders have arguments... with coders. They have inside baseball arguments. It's entirely different than a designer having an argument with a coder. Often, the designer has to teach the coder the principles of design in order to even engage in a logical, productive discussion.
The overriding point I was making is that the tools like github are designed for code, not design. Our tooling inherently advantages code. It's a pain in the ass to even insert an inline image into a comment. Github isn't built for evaluating mockups and wireframes. Designers do our best to bootstrap into the tool, yes. But it's not our tool.