3 ms·

If think it can depend on how much the audience is expected to know about the topic and product beforehand. With 7-zip I'd expect much of the target audience kn

If think it can depend on how much the audience is expected to know about the topic and product beforehand. With 7-zip I'd expect much of the target audience knows about it, or at least knows what a zip program in general is. When you are trying to describe something which is new (to the audience at least) it looks reasonable to me, to begin with "what can you get out of this and in what situation".

abainbridge 8y ago
I mostly agree. I just don't think the "you" thing works on engineers. If an engineer doesn't know anything about your product, they want facts about your product.
- sacado2 8y ago
  It depends. The secret is first to address the customers' problems, then detail technical features. First, hook you with emotions, then shut your critical brain with facts. For instance, look at rust's landing page at https://www.rust-lang.org/ https://www.rust-lang.org/ : "Rust : Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software." There is a hidden "you" in this sentence (the hidden message is "even if you don't think you can, with rust, you can build reliable and efficient software"). And then, they go on with features : performance (no runtime, no GC), reliability (borrow checker), productivity (great documentation, great compiler eror messages).
  - bshimmin 8y ago
    I actually find it weird and a bit annoying that Rust's landing page doesn't mention that it's a programming language (it's in the page title and in one of the testimonials). I'm struggling to find another programming language's landing page that doesn't explicitly say it's a programming language!
    - w-m 8y ago
      It used to say "Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety" until the recent redesign. It also showed a code example, so you couldn't really miss the fact (https://web.archive.org/web/20181114045725/https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181114045725/https://www.rust-...).
  - anoncake 8y ago
    I thought the hidden message was "you're an idiot, but with Rust even someone like you can build reliable and efficient software"
- _up 8y ago
  What's a more important fact/thing you want to know first? That the software "XYZ", can ingest 1M data points per hour or that it can actually solve "your specific problem". Given that you never heard about "XYZ" before.

abainbridge 8y ago

I mostly agree. I just don't think the "you" thing works on engineers. If an engineer doesn't know anything about your product, they want facts about your product.

sacado2 8y ago
It depends. The secret is first to address the customers' problems, then detail technical features. First, hook you with emotions, then shut your critical brain with facts. For instance, look at rust's landing page at https://www.rust-lang.org/ https://www.rust-lang.org/ : "Rust : Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software." There is a hidden "you" in this sentence (the hidden message is "even if you don't think you can, with rust, you can build reliable and efficient software"). And then, they go on with features : performance (no runtime, no GC), reliability (borrow checker), productivity (great documentation, great compiler eror messages).
- bshimmin 8y ago
  I actually find it weird and a bit annoying that Rust's landing page doesn't mention that it's a programming language (it's in the page title and in one of the testimonials). I'm struggling to find another programming language's landing page that doesn't explicitly say it's a programming language!
  - w-m 8y ago
    It used to say "Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety" until the recent redesign. It also showed a code example, so you couldn't really miss the fact (https://web.archive.org/web/20181114045725/https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181114045725/https://www.rust-...).
- anoncake 8y ago
  I thought the hidden message was "you're an idiot, but with Rust even someone like you can build reliable and efficient software"
_up 8y ago
What's a more important fact/thing you want to know first? That the software "XYZ", can ingest 1M data points per hour or that it can actually solve "your specific problem". Given that you never heard about "XYZ" before.