How Cool Is Your Software?
You may never have asked that question, but you probably have said the word “cool” in relation to software before. While attending Autodesk University in Las Vegas, I noticed that word was part of a lot of conversations—both from vendors trying to push their latest revisions, upgrades, and offerings, and from fellow conference attendees describing what they just saw, were told in a class, or discussed in the hallways.
Defining Cool
Cool is an elusive word that can be applied to so many things or people. We usually hear words like “innovative.” When compared to innovative, we see that “cool” is not really a synonym, but cool might include innovation. Innovation is a new method, feature, combination of disparate tools, or a very creative approach to something. Cool may be innovative, but innovation is not always cool. The same applies to other terms such as “cutting-edge,” “groundbreaking,” or even “new-fangled.” But these terms are not what I am driving at.
In my quest for a definition, I turned to the Internet. I found a lot of sites defining people who were thought of as cool. Events that were cool to attend. Many sites defining cool as related to heat or chill. Others had definitions related to acceptance, “Cool, I will be there,” or approval, “I am cool with that,” but not much more.
Getting closer I found the following on Dictionary.com: “Slang use for "fashionable" is 1933, originally Black English; modern use as a general term of approval is from late 1940s, probably from bop talk and originally in reference to a style of jazz; said to have been popularized in jazz circles by tenor saxophonist Lester Young.” Ah… getting closer, but these have no relationship to software or technology, and especially not to CAD or BIM.
An online article posted on May 27, 2010 by Ben Zimmer states, concerning the word, “Its lasting appeal is perhaps due to what the linguist Donna Jo Napoli has called its “underspecified” nature, allowing it to adapt to a myriad of contexts. No question about it, cool is in no danger of cooling off.”
So adapting all of this vagueness embedded in the word to technology and specifically to design technology, here is what I think makes software cool.
Cool software must violate the status quo.
In the book The Humor Code, Dr. Peter McGraw and Joel Warner attempt to define humor via a global search for what is funny. Like the term cool, funny is also hard to define. They come up with the Benign Violation Theory, which says that humor exists when three conditions are met: 1) something threatens one's sense of how the world "ought to be"; 2) the threatening situation seems benign; and 3) a person sees both interpretations at the same time.
As explained on Wikipedia: “From an evolutionary perspective, humorous violations likely originated as apparent physical threats, like those present in play fighting and tickling. As humans evolved, the situations that elicit humor likely expanded from physical threats to other violations, including violations of personal dignity (e.g., slapstick, teasing), linguistic norms (e.g., puns, malapropisms), social norms (e.g., strange behaviors, risqué jokes), and even moral norms (e.g., disrespectful behaviors).” The theory suggests that anything that threatens one's sense of how the world "ought to be" will be humorous, so long as the threatening situation also seems benign.
From Humor Research Lab web page: “For example, play fighting and tickling, which produce laughter in humans (and other primates), are benign violations because they are physically threatening but harmless attacks.”
A strength of the theory is that it also explains when things are not funny: a situation can fail to be funny because it depicts a violation that does not simultaneously seem benign, or because it depicts a benign situation that has no violation. For example, play fighting and tickling cease to elicit laughter either when the attack stops (strictly benign) or becomes too aggressive (malign violation). Jokes similarly fail to be funny when they are either too tame or too risqué.
You can see a TEDx Talk by Dr. McGraw here: https://youtu.be/ysSgG5V-R3U
Opposed to the benign violation that describes humor, software should rattle your cage to be cool. Software must take you places you may not have thought of going. It must shake off the limitations of the past to move toward the future.
Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and writer, developed three laws of which the third is most quoted, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So true.
Cool Software Must Be Rebellious
Like James Dean in the movie “Rebel without a Cause”, cool software is fed up with compliance. It refuses to be used the same way by everyone. It allows for deviations from the expected. It allows you to do things in ways the developer never thought of. It allows for a prominent deviation away from the standards and uniformity.
Cool Software Has to Get Something Done
It needs to accomplish its goal of enhancing designer’s ability. Unlike being a rebel WITHOUT a cause, it has a cause. It makes designing and documenting easier. It makes project delivery faster. It allows creativity to flourish. Like so many people that we might consider cool, it has a purpose in deviating from the norm. It is not pointless. It is not that way just to be different.
Cool Software Has to Be Autonomous (in an Appropriate Way)
According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people and brands become cool by understanding what is considered normal, obeying the rules considered necessary, and then diverging from the rules considered expendable. “Our research explores how brands and people become cool in the eyes of consumers. We reasoned that brands could become cool by breaking rules that seemed unnecessary or unfair, but not by breaking legitimate rules,” wrote authors Caleb Warren (Texas A&M University) and Margaret C. Campbell (University of Colorado).
Software that is cool follows the generally accepted norms of design and production, but breaks free (becomes autonomous) of the rules that just don’t make any sense. Ever get annoyed and wish that your software would not require something that your industry did not agree applied to everyone? Shouldn’t it let me do what I want or what my firm wants without restricting me to one way of doing or building things? Cool software lets you stand apart.
Cool Software Is Confident, Yet Approachable
Cool software knows what it is supposed to do and it does it well. This is the technical side of cool software. It has to convince you that it is competent and make you confident that it works great. It has to be technically advanced and advancing, but may not be the most advanced. I know that some software is so advanced and hard to use that it is unapproachable. Cool software needs to be user friendly or at least not overly complicated to use. It also has to have a way to provide feedback (be approachable) and actually listen/make changes based on the feedback.
Cool Software Does Not Lose Its Cool
In software terms, not losing your cool means stability. Cool software is just stable. It continues working even when pressed hard. Cool people never lose their cool and neither should your software. It should not corrupt files. It should not fail to function. It should not refuse to let you get to your files/models when you want them.
Cool Software Has a Following
Any software that is cool must have a following—i.e., a user group. The more groups, the better. The bigger the groups are, the better. And I’m not talking about just user groups or communities that are started and maintained by the software vendor. Third-party user groups rock—like AUGI. They are created and maintained by the users who think the software is cool.
Cool Software Is Trendy, Timeless, and Timely
Cool software does what is needed today and what is needed tomorrow. It does not change what is foundational and timeless. It keeps the coolness of yesterday and yet is up to date. Like cool people, this software stays cool for the long haul and actually gets cooler. It changes at the right time. It keeps innovating and shocking the design fields by delivering new tools and perfecting the old ones.
Cool Software Is Copied
Just like trendy clothes and cool accessories, software that not only changes itself but also reshapes the industry is cool. It takes its customers to new levels and also challenges the entire design field to keep up. It changes the conversation. It moves every other software tool toward its path. It redefines and redirects, and others try hard to keep up.
I know that I have not captured every nuance of cool that might be applied to software. Most of us know it when we see it. The word just spontaneously pops out in conversations and reactions to demos. If I have missed some things that you think make software cool, let me know or chat it up on the AUGI Forums. If you have not heard that word used in relation to the software you are using—maybe you need to rethink what may be next.
