Hot Koehls

The more you know, the more you don’t know

This content is a little crusty, having been with me through 3 separate platform changes. Formatting may be rough, and I am slightly less stupid today than when I wrote it.
04 Apr 2009

I love my users

“My software works great when there aren’t any users around to screw it up.” Any developer will tell you that the biggest challenge on any project is the end user. They’re demanding, unforgiving, and often completely technically inept. They never read whatever instructions we provide — they read even less when the software is web-based. Their patience is nil, giving up after encountering a single hurdle. The silver lining to this cloud of endless user head-banging is that anybody can do a great job putting together awesome software if they only have the patience to listen and then implement. Most markets require demographics research, i.e. what does the user want/need? That question is already answered for us: they want the program to work. Giving users what they need — as expressed when describing what they want — will always result in a better overall product. It takes more work to get there, but the effort is always well worth it.


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