Stick your neck out and get what you deserve

If you break rules and do new and utterly different things, then some people are "challenged" and offer their best put-downs. Mostly nicely cloaked as "friendly advice" of course, not always meant to be negative, but still with a whiff of deep-rooted human fear.

And believe me, I've heard a few. I may even be construed as a masochist as I am really fond of the blunt ones, less so with the circumstantial argumentative. Mind you, I do listen - sometimes it sharpens the focus, and sometimes stuff is revisited and comes out better for it!

Here are a few favourites offered at different stages of Thingamy's development:

Theoretical phase, code still spotty: "Bollocks!"

First offered by a British gentleman (not so sure about the gentleman bit though). Of course he was in big-company-marketing, a profession where I seldom meet much understanding. What could I say but break into a wide grin? Let's put it like this: The message did not spur any rewriting of code... :)

Development phase, stuff starting to work: "Not believable!"

Another big-company chap. Another hard-to-counter message. But it's my all-time favourite as it says it all: The idea is too good to be true! Which leaves me with a simple task; do it and prove it's doable. That's a mundane task, hard and interesting, but nevertheless just another task.

Alpha, first working business models: "Too naive, the world is much more complex!"

Last offered by a fast-talking full-to-the-brim with business "truths" big company fellow, from one of my big "competitors". Think I would assign this to the "I do not like what I hear, have no clue how to attack it, let's stick to some cluster bombing out of nowhere" type of arguments.
If you check this out you'll see that with a bit of calculation the current systems architecture can be argued to be a few hundred times more complex than need be. Another good reaction in my view; competition preferring to stick to the old is always excellent!

Demo and test phase: "It's not intuitive enough, and it needs to be prettier!"

But of course. This is only half-a-put down as it is mostly true. The intuition argument is dangerous for software though; I've seen MS users migrating to Mac complaining over lack of intuitive UIs, as well as the Mac guy getting stuck when using MS interfaces. Basically I would argue that "what I'm used to equals intuitive".
And don't start me on pretty. Seen this year's yellow-lime-avocado-green-grey that adorns dresses in all high-end ladies shop windows in Rue d'Antibes in Cannes? Seen kids on Facebook apps trying to establish "who's prettiest"? I love some web sites and all their prettiness just as I love whipped cream. But if I'm to hang around in the same interface all day I'd rather go for anything similar to white paper, with lots of easily digested proteins and carbos as the main theme.

Beta and pre-pilots: "People do not want any changes!"

But of course. Doing a demo one day, one chap (actually being impressed) offered "wow, that workflow is so natural. Almost too natural, it's going to be a problem to implement as the users are used to their messy and quirky ways!". And that is truly reality, no doubt about that.
As another example of that reality I'd suggest you take a look at Adobe's LiveCycle ES product. Not a word on data reuse, data models, knowledge capture, nor anything else than the focus on forms-and-documents goodness and how fantastic it is to shuffle that stuff around electronically!
It's like dismissing the car in the beginning of last century, putting all your R&D funds into developing of a Mechanical Horse - "because people are used to horses, so let's make a real efficient one!"

More to come I'm sure. If the jabs stops I know I'm in trouble!

Comments

[Thomas Otter]

Free advice is normally worth what you pay for it.

[sig]

Precisely!

And that's what friends are for too, give a friendly kick in the butt - that the curmudgeons do not see, trying to put down, but really doing a friend's work...hehe..

[Declan]

I've made the pretty point myself in vendor demos but ask it from a different, and I hope more discerning, angle. "Can *I* make the product pretty?"

A well designed app, especially a web-based one, should be built in such a way that the purchaser can modify the CSS or even the page templates without affecting the underlying functionality or the upgrade path. In my experience, trying to pitch a vendor product to management is made easier if I can tweak the product so that it looks like what they are used to. Using the company logo, company colour palette and so on. Familiarity is a good thing. This also helps lower the barrier to entry for users and allows me to address any usability or adoption issues that might come up without going back to the vendor and blowing my budget.

As an IT guy, the ability to tweak the look and feel in a third party product is something that marks a product out from the competition. It proves that the designers knew what they were about and have created an architecture that is extensible and well thought through.

[sig]

Hi Declan,

I agree completely...

And I can proudly add that we do leave layout files open - CSS files, image files, Javascripts - albeit some limitations exists of course but it's amazing how much can be done using only the CSS files.

And it's very useful for me as well, when doing a demo/meeting I pop by the potential client's webpage and check the colour scheme, a quick screenshot of logo and perhaps even some background images downloaded. Four minutes of adding files and tweaking CSS - voila something recognisable :)

That said, would never suggest they stick to that layout as websites are designed for instant liking and three minutes messing around - easy to get sick of that after a few days using same layout/scheme on a constant basis!

And "pretty" - take two chaps in same firm and they can disagree vehemently about what's "pretty". Thus scaling back to as-simple-as-possible with a minimum of distraction seems to be safest way. Stylish/well done/balanced/basic design principles are always possible to use and somewhat more objective though.

Hehe, I do hear "more enterprisey please" as well - whatever that is! Cigars? Flash? Grey? Pinstripes?

That reminds me in regards demos: Some wants to hear all the tech mumbo-jumbo first then a quick "how it works in daily life", while others are exactly the opposite. Almost binary that, and I have yet to guess beforehand what is preferred! Not even an IT vs suit thing... peculiar...