Andrew Pallant

New developers often design and develop what they believe is cool and cutting edge.  What is forgotten is how the customer or the user will think about the experience.  If the customer or user refuses to accept what you have built, you have just wasted time and money.  Potentially you are out of business.

The customer or the user experience is the most important thing in development.  If the user or customer cannot use, cannot trust or cannot get the results they want in a timely way; you may as well consider them lost.  If it is an application, they will not purchase more licenses or spread the word if they cannot use your application.  If it is a website, well; they are often hundreds of alternative sites to visit or make that next purchase.

It is often a good idea to survey your users or customers to find out what they would like to see.  It is also good ideas to watch how a user may use what you are developing.  Often the use is not as you intended and you may have to go back to the drawing board.

If you cannot run a survey or ask questions, start with similar designs and functions to applications or websites; you probably will not miss the mark by much.  Ask those who are in the similar industry for their opinions.

My favourite method of pre-testing is asking your spouse to test what you have built.  If they cannot use it, go back to the drawing board.

Common Mistakes

• Not listening to the customers or users when they complain
• Not listening to the people who been in the industry for a while
• Too many steps to the results or checkout
• Not displaying the correct results
• Too many colours or font faces ( causes confusion )
• Loss of functionality between versions
• Loss of results when returning from a previous page
• Too many clicks, drop downs or options
• Not tested and too many errors
• Users or customers were never asked or surveyed.
• Try to be an industry leader with something that is radically different
• Not making notes in meetings

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