The Death of the High-Fiving Hamster
- Posted December 5th, 2006
- Filed under: User Experience
One of the founding principles here at BatchBlue is to create products that are easy for our customers to learn and use. We want an open dialogue with our customers, one that guides product development, promotes improvements and generally makes the world a better place for small business owners. With that goal in mind, we’ve created Blue by You, our inaugural community of testers, early adopters, geeky-smart friends and savvy small business owners. These folks are helping us determine what is and isn’t working, even though the paint’s not yet dry on our virtual shingle.
Over the past decade or so, in the world of big booming business, I’ve worked on far too many projects that were the result of somebody’s “brilliant” idea on how best to use the Web. The project team then scurries around, devoting tons of work and time to something they thought would improve a Web site, increase sales and/or improve customer satisfaction. I call these ill-conceived ideas the “high-fiving hamsters”: when someone who is very disconnected from customers wants to, say, put blinking, dancing hamsters across the top of every Web page. If you’ve ever watched a user try and navigate a site with such glaring distractions or other poor design choices (or have tried to use one of these sites yourself), you know how frustrating it is. As web content guru Gerry McGovern states in a recent article, “Not having a crystal clear understanding of the customer is like trying to build an house on quicksand.”
When researching new software, it can be difficult to witness how people actually work in their homes and offices (though we’re doing some of that, too). By showing our potential customers what we’re working on and soliciting their opinions, we’re including them in the process of building a truly useful, usable product. Going forward, feedback from this group will help us refine and add to our product offerings.
If you’re interested in joining Blue by You, let us know. We welcome your input on how we can help make the Internet hamster-free.
