Blogs about software-development:
Tales of Shame.
I have heard a few tales of the shame of Internet Explorer 6, the web browser famously despised by web developers (even its own creator). Submitted for your approval, here are a couple of those tales:
- Six years passed between the release of Internet Explorer 6 (2001) and the next version, IE7 (2007). Why so long? I was told that after IE6 was released, Microsoft decided that browser wars were won. The development team disbanded. I recently mentioned this story to an actual longtime Microsoft employee, who said "that sounds about right".
- An large technical organization has some critical business applications which only work in IE6. They will be upgrading all their workstations to Windows 7, which includes Internet Explorer 8, but not IE6. The solution? Instead of upgrading the legacy web application, this organization will provide virtual WinXp machines with IE6.
Helping the User Help You.
The husband related a tale from his office. Software engineers and quality testers were watching a teleconferenced demo of their product. The application crashed, and presented the user with the option to send crash debug information to the software vendor. The user's mouse hovered over the "Cancel" button as the engineers shouted "Send! Send!". (The bug report was sent and picked up by the engineers.) Why wouldn't a user send the troubleshooting information to the software vendor?
At the moment, the user is simply irritated that the application crashed, and they must restart their work. There's no immediate advantage to the user, and even having to click a button sounds like extra work.
Gathering that sort of debug data would probably be more effective if the user was offered some sort of incentive. Example:
- Use personal messaging that conveys the value of sending the information. "Please tell us about this issue. Your contribution is truly appreciated, and will help us to resolve this issue for other users."
- Offer a freebie. "Each crash report is entered into a monthly drawing for an 'I report bugs' t-shirt."
The husband also has some ideas to improve the crash data collection process. He points out that the process should nearly be transparent when the data is sent. There should be a preference setting to control this, which would be presented to the user when the application is first launched, and is also accessible in the application settings at any time.
The Lifespan of Data.
Data has a lifespan, which is highly dependent on where said data is stored.
For example, I've had two Palm PDAs for in the past decade. I was able to import my data from the old PDA to the new one, and with each I'm able to enter data directly onto my computer and sync with the PDA. I've keeping contact info, shopping lists, and wacky business ideas for for that whole time. In comparison, the old paper address books I used to keep only held people I'd talked to in the past few years.
You can find just about any weird commercial that's recently aired on TV on YouTube, but the older stuff is harder to find. Tom Peterson's prime was well before the internet era, so you'll have to dig up some old VHS tapes to see more than a few of his commercials.
