Sometimes problems are not user error, however.  In either case, it requires patience and collaboration to get to the source of the problem.  I recently had a problem with a client that could have been easily avoided, and it seems like this is a good time to demonstrate the 2 ways this problem could have been dealt with:  first, how it actually went down;  second, how it should have gone down.  Here we go:

How It Went Down, a Dramatization

Client:
Some customers have called us complaining that the Widget you built for us last month doesn’t work.  I refuse to pay for something that doesn’t work.  Fix it now.

Me:
I’m sorry to hear that your widget isn’t working to your specs.  We’ve invested another hour into this and have tested it with Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari on Mac and Windows and can’t seem to duplicate the problem.  It has worked perfectly in every case, so it’s difficult to fix because we can’t seem to duplicate any problems with the information we have.  Can you provide us with some more information?  How, specifically, is it not working?  Have you tried it yourself?  Please try it yourself and let us know what the result is.   If you get an error, send us a screen shot.

(2 months of radio silence ensue)

Client:
The Widget you built us 3 months ago has never worked.  We refuse to pay for something that doesn’t work, and we refuse to pay for that extra hour you spent not finding anything wrong with it.  Fix it now.

Me:
As I said before, we need some more information about this in order to help out.  Try duplicating the problem yourself and let us know what happens, and send us a screen shot of the error.  Also try talking to the customer and see if you can find out what browser one of these people is using, what operating system and, if Explorer, what version and what level the security settings are at.  This is a very complicated Widget that makes your store software talk to Google Maps and then outputs all the content with javascript, so there are some links in the chain that can break and we need to know which link is breaking and whether it’s a link we have any control over.  At this point, we’re becoming unwilling to continue troubleshooting for you, since you’re refusing to pay for it and aren’t providing us with the information we need to effectively troubleshoot.

(1 month of radio silence ensues)

Client:
The Widget you built for us 4 months ago has never worked.  We’re moving on to another web person.  Why is it we always have trouble with our web people?  This happened the last time too.  I guess web people just suck.  And we refuse to pay for the Widget because it never worked.

How It Should Have Gone Down

Client:
Some customers have called to complain that the Widget you built for us isn’t working correctly.  I tried to duplicate the problem myself, and I can’t seem to do it– it seems to be working for me.  I’m using Firefox 3.6.7 on a Mac.  So I talked to one of the customers and sent them to www.supportdetails.com.  I’ve attached a screenshot of the customer’s operating system setup.  Turns out this person is running IE6 with javascript disabled.   The customer says he’s doing a search with your widget but gets a blank screen instead of results.   What can be done about this?

Me:
Nice detective work.  Unfortunately, your Widget is a modern web app and it requires javascript in order to show the Widget’s search results properly because they’re rendered with AJAX, which is how we’re able to show them so quickly without reloading the whole page.  Further, IE6 isn’t supported by most modern sites anymore, and the user base is only in the 5% range… but we’ve gone ahead and performed a temporary workaround for you by adding some simple detection features that warn the user about their browser, their need for javascript, and serve up a link to the free IE8 installer along with some instructions for turning on javascript (it’ll be on by default when they install IE8, btw).   That should buy some time while you think about this alternative:  we could write something that performs the detection and then outputs the results in a less-elegant manner that doesn’t rely on javascript if a user doesn’t have javascript enabled.  This would take a few hours, so I’d say it’s only worth it if this app is so crucial to your business that 5% of your end users being unable to use the Widget will impact your sales in a significant manner.  Just let us know how to proceed.

Client:
Excellent work, let’s leave it like you have it.  Thanks!

Summary

The second scenario is so much easier for everyone!  And it’s far better for the client’s business.  In a nutshell– running a website comes with some responsibilities.  You maximize your ROI when you take the time to learn how your website works and then use that knowledge to proactively interact with your customers and your web contractors.

Burnout is a huge problem in the hi-tech world, especially among web developers.  Because, for many of us, web development is a hobby as well as a job; and because of the 24/7 nature of the internet we tend to spend far too much time at a computer, which can result in an overall loss of productivity and creativity once the inevitable burnout sets in.  While myself and my staff are also somewhat guilty of this, I try to encourage a slightly more European approach to our schedule, with some unique twists.

As part of this outlook, I try to encourage time off for recharging– more than the typical 2 weeks/year that America has somehow erroneously (and arrogantly) adopted.  At the core of this is my desire that myself and my team be the best at what we do.  Not just average or good enough, but the best.  In order to be the best, most creative and most efficient designers and developers, we need to be happy, rested, balanced and focused.  Otherwise it would be far too easy to turn into that grumpy, no-life IT guy we’ve all heard of and/or dealt with.  No one wants to deal with that guy.  Apart from encouraging after-lunch siestas, the taking of “sanity days” off, beach and/or garden breaks and the occasional Tequila Friday at the office,  I achieve this balance by taking sanity time– surfing, snowboarding, gardening, traveling, spending time with family, making wine and… well… once every 4 years dropping everything for the World Cup.  I also encourage my staff to do the same.  I am a HUGE national team soccer fan.  Men’s and women’s national teams.

Yes, iluminada design is a great place to work.  But only if you’re interested in being the best and doing what you have to do to be the best, both professionally and personally.

Today, 6/11/10 marks the start of 1 month of World Cup Soccer.  Fortunately, most of the games occur early this year– before we open for business at 10:00am.  But, for the record:  don’t be surprised or upset if the phone lines go to voicemail during (1) every US match (there will probably be only 3 of them because we suck this year) and (2) every Brazil match (we have some close Brazilian friends and colleagues).  There will probably be lots of Brazil matches– they’re awesome and are my bet to win it.

No need to worry– we won’t be abandoning our friends and clients for a month.  We just might get started a bit later than usual on a few days.

Similarly, I believe it is absolutely necessary to observe certain holidays.  MLK day is not an optional holiday.  It’s the one mandatory holiday here, ahead of Christmas and New Year’s day (which we observe each year by closing for a week).  I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Columbus Day,  but I do care about and observe Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day.  I also think everyone should always take their birthday off if possible.  And Bob Marley’s birthday too, though no one knows exactly what day that is… so any day in early February will have to do.  So please don’t be upset with us when you find us closed for holidays:  we’re trying to introduce a measure of humanity to the hi-tech industry, and I hope you can respect that.

Make sure you’re running Safari to check out the demos on the site below:

http://www.apple.com/html5/

The sooner all of you stop using Internet Explorer and move to standards-compliant browsers like Safari, Firefox and Chrome, the sooner we will be able to grow the web into a new realm of possibilities.

www.happymagicfuntime.com/blog/entry/html5_for_drunks

www.webdesignerwall.com/demo/css-buttons.html

Here’s the article.

http://www.phparch.com/2010/02/19/php-architect-podcast-oddweek-003/

Here’s the full story.

How did the hackers do it?  They exploited yet another vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6.  Check out this article about the hack.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-innovative-ways-to-use-twitter-for-business/