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by RandomWorker 813 days ago
Depends on the weight of the word love. My sense that love can be expressed to products because they are delightful in use. I’ve said it many times that I love Figma, or I love using Google sheet. Is that the same love that I have for my daughter — hell no. But the word does convey well in the regular vernacular what it means for me to use those products. I’m not opposed to using love in this way the author means which is they like it enough to return, probably be advocates for the service, refer people, and probably put down some money to use it.
2 comments
rusk 813 days ago
The love I feel for a product springs from the feelings of relief that it has improved my life
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AlotOfReading 813 days ago
My experience is that the expectation of "lovable" tends make the development process far more toxic. Whatever your definition, "love" is a relationship that takes investment from both sides. Customers will interact with dozens of different applications on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Having a relationship with any or all of them is a significant burden to the customer. Think about the appliances in your home. Do you love them? Do you even want to?

"Lovable" is also toxic to product developers. Any usage that doesn't build a relationship starts to look like a failure. If you're making tax software, people aren't going to love it no matter what you do. Even if you manage to build that "loving" relationship with the customer, do you really want to invest that deeply maintaining it with every customer (including the demanding ones)? Remember that if they love your software, they're now invested in you not changing it and they'll expect the norms of that relationship in all interactions with you. If you fail to meet those expectations, some of them will go out of their way to talk about it. If you do meet those expectations, their "love" may actually scare others away from using it to avoid being associated with them. Think of the stereotypes about people who like Vim, Rust, or Excel. Maybe that's what you want, but it shouldn't be a universal development goal.

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