I do most of my applications for like minded people (or just because i needed them) but i consider doing consumer-facing software very important as well, here is my mission statement for that.
Goals
- Surface what is incomprehensible in a way that is meaningful.
- Give the software's users the opportunity to expand their understanding.
Rules
- Empower while educating the software's users about the powers given.
- Keep it simple not because the users of the software are simple, but because they are complex.
Premises
Obscure data which is incomprehensible to most is not destined to be useless to most, it was just never presented in a meaningful way.
People are not ignorant to software just because they use it without an understanding of how it was created, software is ignorant because it is created to be used by people without understanding them.