Image from Ryanne Bradshaw

Foreword:

I’ve seen 2 attitudes towards planning. Plan before you start, follow the plan and continually update it. OR, plan a little before you start, start doing real business and adapt on the fly as things change. The argument is that plans are theoretical and a good start but often something to archive and ignore later on as you need to do more business/work and less planning when things are up and running. My perspective is that both schools of thought are relevant but that most startups lose direction and therefore focus without an attractive, loveable plan and vision.

As a freelancer, I often come into a project after the planning is done and the direction is set. I am therefore often exposed to the absence of planning and lack of direction or vision that a business requires. It occurs to me that very few actually know what is important in a business plan, why it’s important (lack of motivation) and actually follow through with a strategy rather than just reacting as things happen.

When I start work on a new project my first thoughts are on:

• Audience (and user competency)
• How do they sell (word of mouth, google organic search etc.)
• Who has a say, who’s really in charge and do they know about web development
• Do they use SCRUM or Agile development methodologies (love transparency? do they empower the team?)

Note that their technology and product is of little interest. I want to know how they are running a business and what makes them tick. I want to see why they are passionate about what they’re doing and how they involve everyone in their vision.

Warning signs for lack of planning

Most of the above points never come into conversation unless I prod. The company already has A and it wants B and you are the tool to get them there. Questions about their motives and rationale are not to be asked. It is ‘decreed’ by the overlord (director) that these things need doing. This mindset often fails. Other directors I’ve worked with say: “We have A and want to get towards B and C so that in 6 months time D will be in reach if B or C pay off”. This kind of forward thinking and planning are the necessary groundwork for success. There is direction and there is vision. There is a plan to get past B and to assess if D is viable once B and C are done. This might sound like simple common sense planning but it in my experience that forward planning gets itself killed once the stressful powers that be kick in. The point where those controlling the money flow start kicking around instead of using their head is usually fairly obvious.

One of the biggest warning signs for me when assessing a project is whether or not the team is exposed to the vision. I don’t mean to get rich or sell 1000 products. I mean “what is the point”? With Vidza I wanted to solve a problem that pissed me off. I wanted to help people decide on a good movie to watch. That was and still remains the vision of vidza. Vidza isn’t a massively popular tool, but I am happy with the outcome. Three years after development and it still performs well and solves my problems. Sometimes it even helps others decide what movies to watch.

WARNING: A mission statement is not a vision. A vision is what you want to be. A mission statement is what you are striving to achieve. Mission statements usually sound very wanky in my honest opinion. They are long, boring and forgetful statements that sound like they’ve been written by a tax accountant. No one can remember a mission statement but everyone can believe in a vision.

Mission and vision statement examples

“Your mission is what you do best every day, and your vision is what the future looks like because you do that mission so exceedingly well.”

– Rosa Say on What’s the difference between Mission and Vision?

Here are some I came up with for myself as DynamicDan.

M: Provide technical solutions to the common business owner and therefore improve their profit potential.

V: Make all digital content easy to use and fast, one client at a time.

V: Be in demand for new projects and be loved by those needing support.

V: Love what my clients are doing so that I can love what I’m doing for them.

M: Provide the human side that other web developers and programmers can’t in order to have a higher quality end product and user satisfaction.

M:  Become a key player in providing enterprise level human solutions to technical computer or web problems.

Others I’ve found:

M: Microsoft: “A computer on every desk and in every home, all running Microsoft software.”
(Note that they don’t mention why which should be understood from their vision)

M: Amazon Kindle: “Every book ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.”

How to get back on track

It’s not easy for a business or its team members to find the time to rethink through everything. I also don’t believe that everything needs to change in order to improve planning. The first thing to do is to simply take your nose out of the machine and start talking to your end users and the potential customers. Talk to real people and check that you are going to be able to offer them something they will love to use and will benefit their well being.

Find a vision

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

There are plenty of ways you can check the health of your business or venture right now. Most are probably ‘maybe stats’. Assumptions and statistics that could mean something. I’m thinking about visitor traffic statistics for example. If visitors are high does that mean we’re doing well? If time on site increases are we more attractive? There are heaps of maybe stats in business and it’s very easy to make assumptions on them. Here’s some examples of more solid stats that you might be of use:

• Increase in affiliate and referral traffic time on site
  Note that this does not include direct or search engine based traffic because these types tend to confuse the overall data set (Eg 10 second visits from google searches). Traffic from affiliates is also usually your most valuable traffic
• $$$ (products sold, etc. the obvious stuff)
  Note that it may save your business to sell products but knowing how many customers after a purchase recommend your product will make you successful.
• Work to value ratio
  Are there areas of high risk and long development time? Most projects suffer from this problem because they don’t know how to progressively enhance their business and roll out smaller features over time. Content creation can be a risk when there are simply too many resources/time/people involved for a minor audience.
• Happy colleagues
  Is everyone stressed out or are they feeling happy about the work they are doing? When you’re employees or co-workers are having short lunch breaks, staying late and looking a little zombiesh, your product or service will suffer. Surely they wouldn’t be this way if everything was working well right? Happy, stress free colleagues can think clearly and find better solutions to problems.

I hope that this post inspires you to think more about purpose and what the point of your business is. I believe understanding ones vision and having a plan on how to achieve that vision are the most important steps needed in motivating the team and providing end user satisfaction.

Some additional articles that inspired me can be found here:

Getting Real by 37 Signals – common sense, best practice for startups

8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

Rework by 37 Signals – the follow up to Getting Real.

Example: Writing a love letter using docs (hilarious!)

What I get from Google Docs over any other similar tool:

1. Encourages project transparency using flexible user roles and share settings
2. Easy to see differences between revisions and changes per user (brings massive trust in sharing a document with everyone)
3. Real-time collaboration… it really feels like you’re building something together and in a rapid yet fun manner. (sometimes even competitively)
4. Fast! I can start a new doc or spreadsheet and it’s saved automatically. No waiting for the app to load or choosing where to save stuff.. just TYPE.
5. Resolves confusing issues quickly. I can go from a text based Skype chat to a privately shared drawing in < 5 seconds. Suddenly ideas make sense a whole lot quicker!
6. Die emails, DIE! No more back and forward long email dialogs with mixed edited versions from various contributors. One up to date google doc solves that problem and kisses that massive email thread goodbye.
7. Importing and exporting to any format is simple and actually works! I know I can go from anywhere to anywhere with Google Docs.
8. Offline access is possible with Chrome and the offline option enabled. When you come back online, syncing works like it should.
9. The web app is always up-to-date meaning new spreadsheet formulas are available and new features are available faster than traditional desktop based apps.
10. Did I mention the interface? Working without frustration from computers can actually be free?
11. Bug-less. I have so much more trust in Google Docs than I do with Micro$oft products.

Additionally, Google understand the user. Scenario: a few paragraphs of text need revising and approval from the team. One google doc can be shared and the changes edited in real time. Any questions or unsure changes can be made as comments that appear separately next to the content in question. Comments can then be replied to and resolved. The comment systems means that the original document has not been corrupted. Email simply can’t do this. I commonly see agendas being sent around asking for input. The scenario described above would greatly reduce manual merge issues and save time.

• Story navigation and quick overview of tasks (tasks not started/in progress/complete)
• Ability to toggle viewing of tasks and story details for readability.
• Clicking a story automatically jumps to the story on the page and reveals the tasks

• Every story has a title, ‘user story’ based description, test case for completing the story, complexity rating, related notes and references to the story that may be useful.
• Tasks are split into: not started, in progress and finished.

• Story details are hidden by default leaving just the story title and user story description.

• Tasks can have a: descriptive title, important note or dependency (in red), priority and further details that should be taken into account.
• Using the note/dependency field makes it easy to see what should be resolved within a story before starting it.

For more details on the online SCRUM system I have developed or how clients are involved in the SCRUM process, please contact DynamicDan.

(okay, I made that one up… but it has the same meaning!)

After being introduced to the SCRUM development methodologies at RMIT (Melbourne) and being extensively trained in the process at Publicis (Munich), I decided to implement SCRUM into my work flow with clients. I then built my own SCRUM management system into my existing CTS (Client Time System) with future plans to sell it as a stand alone app.

Quite simply, SCRUM has a…

• strong focus on transparency on all levels
• stories organised STRICTLY by business priority that specify the exact benefit and to whom
• clearly defined dependancies which are resolved PRIOR to starting any project
• responsibility clearly defined and achknowledged by all involved
• solid understanding of what DONE means along with validity tests

After all the task management systems and processes I have used so far, I believe that SCRUM is the best approach to take for any project, whether large or small.

For more details on the online SCRUM system I have developed or how clients are involved in the SCRUM process, please contact DynamicDan.

If you haven’t already got a search working on your website for your internal pages/content, get one! If you have, then you should make sure you can see all the previous user searches. A well setup search tool should have tracking implemented and sync in with Google Analytics events tracking for easy monitoring.

DynamicDan added a simple yet nice AJAX search option on earlybirds.com.au with tracking through G.A. The net gain is well worth any time/cost in setting it up. Within 1 week there were over 100 searches made on their site from 4 different countries. Earlybirds can now see what their customers really want and make sure that future searches always return useful results.

In todays competitive market place, helping users find what they want quickly and easily will put you ahead of the rest. When consumer trends or desires change you’ll be ready for them!

Contact DynamicDan for help setting up your search system.

Your clients send you multiple design files, documents, videos, and porn…
They send it via CD, email or some custom 3rd party server with complex file restrictions and size limits etc.

The solution:

Create a simple web application with user logons to browse files and avoid loosing emails, CDs and filling up your file server.

Filez is a Flex application that can easily be branded to look like your own app. Clients can login and upload to their shared folder upon which the Filez owner receives a notification email. Files can be downloaded and uploaded whenever required while not worrying about your email account being full or dying because some mad hatter client sent you a 70Mb attachment.

Additionally, the file server can be run on a private internal server so that the only time spent is uploading the file, and not in the download by the Filez/server owner.

For more details on the Filez system I have developed including screen shots and a demo, please contact DynamicDan.

Version control doesn’t work in emails!

Dropbox has become the best replacement for email attachments and other outdated file syncing systems.

Why Dropbox could work well for you:

• easy to share files without any login required for the viewer
• easy to have a shared folder so that new files are automatically seen on the viewers’ computers
• works seamlessly with the OS, no additional FTP app needed
• mobile app for on the go access
• it’s fast and reliable along with file history management and an optional yet excellent web interface

One of the unexpected benefits is that clients can see exactly what files are being worked on in their projects and when. This helps greatly with providing transparency over a project (more so when growl alerts are enabled). BTW, dropbox is highly secure for confidential files – in some cases more secure than many high-end email systems.

The interface is constantly changing and evolving. Pro sites like google, facebook and youtube are setting the standards for interface design. Users then learn how these new fancy interfaces work and expect the same level of smarts in other applications.

What does this mean for your next web app? It means your designer needs to be totally familiar with all the new interaction design paradigms. How do social buttons now work, how should contextual items reveal them selves, how competent is the user in understanding something similar but different. Many start off making “what’s theirs” – something new and superior to the existing standard interface. Many then also revert back to a simpler version because the “user didn’t get it”. I’ve seen this happen before and it’s rather frustrating. Especially when the client thinks they’ve got something cool, fun and unique but don’t realise it’s simply too cool, fun and not quite ready for the average user.

Here are some things I’ve noted in this direction based on my experience in usability and interaction design.

- One search field, optionally one search button

Google has set the standard, if your search form has more than this then you’re wasting your time. Every search criteria element should be extracted from a single text phrase. “Elephants in Africa” should identify the animal and the place and understand the connection between these two elements. “Electrical Engineering for Dummies by Robert T Stump” should identify all 3 elements and return results ‘for dummies’ and by R.T.S relating to the (technical) field ‘Electrical Eng.’. It should also take into account relevance for each key phrase in the text query.

Facetted search is only useful for certain logical controls like price filtering or date restrictions but most of the time these are secondary search options that users don’t care to even look at.

Bottom line: Don’t encourage your user to make heaps of selections/choices when everything could be understood from one input.

- One web address = one app = one design… a consistent design across all devices

Users expect to access the same app where ever they are on what ever device. Styling, buttons and information architecture should all be the same. Layout should vary slightly but the overall experience should remain exactly the same regardless of device or screen res. No-one wants to relearn an app so don’t make them.

- One big cloud

Saving should be instant and synced to the cloud. There is no ‘save now’ button, there is no ‘backup now’ button. Data loss sucks! (see recovery). Any good app developer will ensure the cloud works seamlessly. In some cases this also means undo and redo controls are required, not just in a session but across the entire history of the file/cloud data. Google docs does this well. They offer an easy to navigate history view showing changes between versions.

- Showing off, share options

Each item needs a share link, each collection of items also needs a share link. Privacy options are not just expected, they’re demanded! Users expect to be able to export their content into different formats, share on any service, and get feedback from their friends/family/co-workers. This means using smart URL structures to begin with making use of human style and hackable URL formats. Your app should be able to recover from almost any miss-typed or broken URL scenario. When linking to private views in the open web context (eg, via public complex links), privacy information should also be maintained and not reveal personal details. Feedback/comment systems should also be controlled via the share link.

- Collaboration

I share, you share, we all want to build something together. Real time collaboration is the standard thanks to Google Docs and the like. If 5 people can’t work on the same data at the same time then it’s not fun and it’s not as productive as we want it to be. No longer do we sit at the same screen using 2 brains on 1 computer. We have 3 brains working on their own computer anywhere and anytime in the world. Gone are the days when an excel file is locked because someone else is working on it.

- FAST

Don’t make me click, don’t make me wait, don’t slow me down. The UI has to be slick, easy and fast. Location specific hover elements make a lot of sense (at least with a mouse). Intelligently preload data, don’t have slow/complex or clunky animations/transitions between content or screens and if I have to wait for something, it better be less than 2 seconds. If it’s longer, then it better be a background task (lazy loaded) that I can ignore and doesn’t greatly affect my task at hand.

- Usable

Everyone sets out to make a usable app taking into account good usability standards. Few actually reach this. An app only has poor usability when your users start using it. When your programmers and business directors use it, it’s perfect. It functionally works, it ticks all the business requirement boxes but it might not be any fun for your end user. Apps should have excellent default settings and hide the advanced options by default. If your user is advanced then they will find the options and take the time to learn how they work. Provide text over icons where possible or contextual tips where not. The decision to use an icon over text would depend on how well the icon can be recognised and understood by the average user. This is again dependent on what the big guns are setting as the standard.

This is true for all apps that should be quick to use. ie, a search page should not encourage lots of clicks to reveal lots of options and therefore loads more clicks. My professional experience comes directly from implementing facetted search systems. Search facets tend to take up a lot of space and can be overwhelming for a user if not well designed. For this reason most businesses make the mistake of collapsing the facet and letting the user reveal the facet options on demand. This of course means that the user doesn’t know what options they have until they expand the facet. This results in the average user ignoring it completely. Apps that require more time on a page or careful configuration like an advanced options list or settings page can get away with hiding/minimising some things….

A good example for resolving the above problem is by leading the user.  The google search page displays (currently) 6 additional search categories on the left side bar and then a ‘More’ button. Most users will ignore this area and never click the More button but the more adventurous users will read the first 6 options and be keen to see what other search refinements they could make. They have learnt what value that area brings without much effort and are keen to see what might be hidden.

Visual Clutter

This one’s rather obvious but I thought I’d mention it anyway. Don’t give the user too many options at one time. Limit the actions to 3 at once. A user could decide between clicking 3 different things. In terms of the google search image above, choosing a search category or refinement is 1 action. Choosing to refine the text query is another. I don’t even see the advanced search  options link anymore. In a standard single page view, I have 2 actions I can take/see to modify my google search.

Setting good defaults.

Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learnt which is based on the premise that users are lazy and dumb. Your default settings need to be the most visually engaging and functional. For example, I worked on a timeline tool that had 3 view modes. These were called ‘zoom 1′, ‘zoom 2′, and the cleverly named ‘zoom 3′. The concept was that the view or zoom mode corresponded to the amount of time data (results) that could be viewed on the timeline canvas. Starting at zoom 1 seemed to make a lot of sense to us at the time because that’s the best overview mode that would show the longest time frame and therefore the most engaging data set. This however proved to be a disaster as no user could understand the zoom function and found it time consuming to interact and view results in zoom 1. We eventually set the default to zoom 2 that provided more of a text based summary overview of the results which lead to instant engagement and understanding. It was the most flexible view mode that worked for the largest user group. Advanced users would be able to find and play with the zoom mode as desired but the average user could still use the basics of the tool without feeling like the tool was too complicated.

If you take the approach that the user won’t change any settings, click any boxes or use any search filters then you have your average user and therefore your starting point for deciding on the best defaults.

Managing Drupal Permissions

Left: a snapshot of the 1000+ permission combinations for Drupal and each user role. Having the wrong defaults in this case would not only be a massive security risk but also a 5 hour headache in resolving them. Defaults related to the user interface are just as important.

For further reading I found a nice discussion on displaying system settings and the complications involved when breaking up basic and advanced settings. The end conclusion, set good defaults!

Advanced options are bad, intelligent code is good.

I’ve come to the sad but happy realisation that users have high expectations. I don’t blame google for their clever web apps or search systems. I think this problem has always been around since someone said “Technology will solve everything”. I have built many different web apps and made many customisations to complicated search/filter systems and the one thing I’ve learnt is that it’s not always worth the money. A good example of not having advanced options but rather intelligent code is the google search and map systems. They have exactly 1 search input to handle any search. Google maps could quite easily have 3 text inputs: query, location and category. Instead they intelligently understand from a single input what might be a location, query or category and even the semantic relationship between all 3. This is what users expect these days. The computer should know what I’m thinking. Why do I have to tick boxes and fill in lots of form data? The computer should understand my habits and make useful recommendations or make suggestions to improve my experience.

Get feedback from real people!

Obtaining useful feedback early on and throughout a project is by far the most overlooked and undervalued process in the web/software world. By real people I mean NOT your programmers, not your business directors and not anyone that is not the average user or has conflicting interests. Any usability expert will tell you that you need to segment your user base and understand their needs properly. One doesn’t have to go down the path of ‘scientific usability testing’ but the simple method of asking friends and family (the real users) can bring a lot to the table. 90% of critical design changes have actually come from my (now) fiancee. She’s not afraid to say “it’s crap” or “I don’t get it”. As I’m usually too close (and speaking as a developer) I often retaliate on these remarks and try and prove the past decisions to be good ones. After crossing the “oops, she’s right” threshold, it’s easy to see the flaws. It’s amazing how many poorly constructed interfaces are out there that constantly annoy the user. A lack of respect for your user and their honest feedback means poorly designed interfaces (and functional systems) and therefore frustrated, angry users.

If “peace on earth” was my next project I’d start with getting feedback from those that actually have a vested interest in the planet and it’s future. Politicians, business men and banks are all in un-biassed positions to provide useful feedback.