Software loves the catwalk

There is plenty of clamoring for the next big and popular trend ready to occupy our mindshare. These trends can affect what we use, how we create, what we value, and what we believe.

Software mirrors life and fashion. Every creation gives and takes from a collective wielding undue influence on what we perceive and adapt as the next new thing. The methods, languages, deliverables, and products we produce and consume quickly become outdated or even counterproductive.

How can we avoid being blinded by the small tactics and trends that cloud the basics when trying to learn, build, and use software to improve our lives? The easiest way is to gouge out your eyes because seeing ourselves as a feather in the winds of trending influences will keep us afloat. You’ll work, play, love, live, learn, grow, and shrink at your own beat, so the goal should be knowing how to properly integrate these trends into your natural flow. All the tactics can live in your mind, but you own of your thoughts. We can’t abstain from every idea that becomes popular, but we can adopt practices to let those trending tactics know their place.

Read the trend behind trends

Trends don’t occur in a vacuum. Lots of times they are old life lessons with new applications and buzz-words. Those lessons can be the common denominator for various trends we come across. Paying attention to the trend behind the trends, and you can get what you need from the trend without getting too caught up by it.

Software methodology has changed, so seek trend among trends. Agile development promotes short cycles with small adjustable requirements. Inspiring lean UX that sacrifice deliverables for focus on end-user product experience. Borrowed from lean startups, an emergent business tactic of letting market reception lead the viability of business ideas. Proponents, detractors, failure, and success frame the lessons by which we choose to build. Forgo perfection, make mistakes quickly, get feedback, find the small wins... The trend behind trends validates whether its worth integrating the next thing into how you currently do things.

Taking it into context

There’s a reason summer fashion season has little to do with heavy coats. Knowing the context around trends help us understand why they exist, and how long they will be viable. We can find patterns when matching the context to our own goals. Trends are glorified short term solutions to short term problems. The problems may be vapid, or even imagined, but they caught the attention of the masses who are lost in their own circumstances. It’s fun to toss aside trends, but it's helpful to look into why they gained attention.

Look at all the recently emerging web design patterns to see how context affects trends. With graceful degradation, a website targets predetermined experience but is expected to fall back to a working functional version for those who may not have the means to match that experience. Alternatively, you hear about progressive design, where we build a basic experience and enhance that basic view for newer client screens that can handle those improvements. Responsiveness is required, and sites expect optimized experiences on multiple screens. Mobile-first design is another new technique where sites are developed for smaller mobile environments first to promote a focus on important functions and then expanded upon for larger devices. These trends emerge from the need to solve the emerging web designer’s dilemma of accounting for multiple screen sizes and client devices. They grew popular because they provided focus and let web designers know what they should target first. The context for many trends are born from past problems

Yes, mobile-first design is a fine design method, with wonderful time-saving benefits. And you can argue about whether it’s an approach that should be followed to the letter. Meanwhile, you can’t expect a sane developer to bother using it for a desktop intranet that’s built for a 30 person team. Not everything is a consumer product or marketing website. Context provides clues about the general usefulness of a tactic, letting us know if we can safely get by on our current projects without using them.

See how long they last

Have you heard that trends age and die like everything else? We get caught up in them at the height of their influence, then move on the next when they fade away. The world moves fast, but that doesn’t mean we have to be an early adopter of everything. The world has been spinning along before the trend was introduced, and will continue to spin whether it’s adopted or not.

Stay on top of industry advancements and changes observe critically. Let the idea simmer and analyze the cost and benefits. Don’t be quick to adopt it into your workflow, unless you want to have a constantly changing workflow with no sense of stability. It never hurts to be conservative, even in technology and design, where new things are constantly introduced. See how long the trend lasts, see who gets burned by it, and see what the detractors have to say. A worthy trend will survive the time and the lashings either way.

There is more to software than building it, you will be learning how a whole industry goes about setting its own trends. Look beyond the small tactical band-aids like learning how to code.

Settle allegiances amicably

I enjoy my Apple products, and I’ll continue using them until I find better alternatives. You can insist you know something better, or that I’m blind, or stupid, but why would I care about what you think is better for me.

Technologies and businesses we hold dear eventually fade into history. The phone heralded as the second coming becomes old, annoying, and clunky within a decade. The companies you fawn over crumble to nothingness at the expense of unexpected startups. Be lost in the present and the pleasantries of using whats in front of us.

Technology is but a tool. It’s advancement is opinionated, but it helps me do something important. The arguments over which swords are best to win a war match the relevancy of the ecosystem preferences of today, highlighting all the insecurities of our decisions.

With its promise of shaping the future and humanity’s interaction with it, debating the merits of technology is as fun as it is irresistible. But for those who insist on fighting the battle of which technology is best, the web has enough verbal war-zones, filled with short sighted combatants.

Software lives and dies. While should future proof our products as much as possible, but our strategy must consider more than the products. We can meander on the flat, glossy, gradients, and skeuomorphic design decisions, but it’s all reflective of the times we follow. Reach beyond your capacity to follow to make great things. Take the inspiration to hear, but the trends and tactics alone won’t save you.