Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey

Small things

One of the biggest challenges of web development is balancing the big things and the small things. My goal is to get the main thing right while still being obsessive about the details. This is not necessarily the best or easiest approach as you can slowly lose sight of the big picture while you're trying to decide what the best font is for the footer.

The big thing? A secure website that is functional, responsive, and largely trouble-free. The small thing? Every phone number on the site is displayed in the same format.

Where it gets interesting is when people have conflicting views of what's big and what's small. Without proper redundancy and backups, it doesn't matter how good your front page graphic looks. On the other hand, if your content has typos, poor wording, or incorrect information, the site has failed as its most basic purpose - effectively communicating information.

Honestly, it's a constant battle. I'm a details guy and I will revisit something multiple times until it's right. I think it's worth the time and effort because the minor touches are so often what user's notice and appreciate. The web has progressed to the point where people take the big things for granted: of course my checkout will be secure, and the site will be up, and the search results will be accurate, and my contact form will be received. This doesn't mean that we can take these things for granted. In fact, they must always be the core of what we do, but I see the little things as simple ways to show users that they matter and deserve to be treated well.

An obvious example is Apple, a company that seems equally obsessed with the big things and the small things. My favorite small thing right now is found in Google's Gmail. If you find an email message that you sent and want to follow-up with the person, click reply. In every other email program I've used, the reply will be addressed to yourself. After all, reply means "reply to the sender" and you sent the message.

In Gmail, though, when you hit reply to a message you sent, it fills in the original address you sent it to. Absolutely brilliant! Why would you want to reply to yourself? I use this all the time and without fail I smile and say a small thank you to the kind developer who took the time to get it right.

On a larger scale, allow me to sing the praises of my current favorite web company, Campaign Monitor. If you manage a lot of email lists, this is the company to use. Seriously, no one else comes close.

It's specifically designed for web developers who can pass on the costs of each newsletter to the client, but it can work wonders in a more typical company as well. The software is the perfect example of getting the big things (quickly and easily sending thousands of emails) and the little things (simple instructions, friendly verbiage, and clear steps) right. As if that wasn't enough, they have great customer service and a well done, well documented API. I've had the chance to correspond with David Greiner, the head of Campaign Monitor, and found him to be straight forward and helpful, even when he wasn't telling me what I wanted to hear! Of course, they have an excellent blog as well.

If you send a lot of emails, give Campaign Monitor a try.

What's your favorite example of a company or website that gets the big things and the small things right?

Are you taking your vitamins?

If you're remotely involved in web development, do not miss Vitamin. The site launched earlier this month as a resource for web designers, developers, and entrepreneurs. The tagline is nourishment to help the web grow. Carson Systems is developing and driving the site and they've done a great job of getting some incredible people on board - Dave Shea, Shaun Inman, David Hansson, Dan Cederholm, Molly, Eric Meyer and, at times, Jason Fried.

One feed brings you articles, news, reviews, and interviews. There are a number of helpful sites out there, but when I first subscribed to this feed, I received almost 30 different posts, and immediately marked 20 of them to read later. Great stuff!

Visit ThinkVitamin.com at least once a day. Medicine never tasted so good!

Careers for Kids

Since most of the people who read this blog already have careers, let's imagine what career you would choose for your children. Money Magazine just ranked the Top 10 Best Jobs in America and here's what they came up with [via Brent Simmons].

• 1. Software Engineer
• 2. College Professor
• 3. Financial Adviser
• 4. Human Resources Manager
• 5. Physician Assistant
• 6. Market Research Analyst
• 7. Computer IT Analyst
• 8. Real Estate Appraiser
• 9. Pharmacist
• 10. Psychologist

The two biggest surprises for me are that College Professor is number two (I don't think philosophy and political science professors are what they're talking about) and the fact that I have considered or actually done 4 out of the 10 of these since I was in college.

I can honestly say that my current position is my dream role - helping a team of designers and developers create outstanding websites that serve the local church. When I reflect on that sentence, I honestly can't believe I get to do this every day. How many of these positions could exist - 100? And then I get to do it at Fellowship Church. If you want to see some of the cool things we get to work on, check out the current homepage and the new Town & Country site. Wow, I am truly blessed.

That little excursion wasn't the point of this post, however. If you could choose a career for your child, what would you choose? Right now, Ben would tell you he'd like to be a programmer, but only if he was creating games. I can't imagine what the top 10 jobs will be in 10 years, but Ben has shown me one thing already. It is very clear that he is determined to do something he loves, whether or not that translates directly into money and prestige. I couldn't be more proud of that, even it meant another philosophy major in the family :)

Make Games on a Mac

I've written a number of times about my quest for programming or game making software for my son, Ben. My dream is to find a tool that will allow him to build games without learning a lot of code. I want him to be able to let his imagination go crazy while he gets familiar with game concepts. At his age, I don't want him to struggle with code until he's comfortable with the various pieces of the puzzle.

A few weeks ago, we found an incredible solution. Power Game Factory by Sawblade Software. This is one of the coolest pieces of software I have ever seen. It allows you to build incredibly fun and realistic games simply by making choices. You can be as simple or complex as you like. Each character or object within the software has a wide range of settings and options attached to it.

The default theme centers around snowmen that attack you with snowballs, so you get a general idea of how much fun it is.

Ben has used the software for hours already while creating multiple levels of his very own game. For the first time, he's able to try nearly every wacky computer game idea he's ever had (what if my lightsaber was 2-feet wide?) and learn through simple trial and error. He loves it!

Here's a great article from Apple.com on Power Game Factory and other Mac game building tools. Did I mention it is only available for the Mac?

Here are two final things that have blown me away. First, this software costs a grand total of $44, which even includes physical delivery!

Second, I ordered the game on a Friday afternoon, but then found out that it came on CD, which we wouldn't get for about a week. I contacted the developer, Jesse Simko, to see if there was another option since Ben was hoping to play with it all weekend. Within an hour, I had a special link to an electronic version and Ben had a blast all weekend. I was, and am, truly impressed.

Easter Sunday

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, peaceful Easter! We've had a terrific weekend of serving, worshipping, relaxing, and eating. This is my seventh Easter as a member of Fellowship Church and I can say without a doubt that it was the most powerful one I have ever attended (yes, even more than the time Bring Me to Life was performed). Every element, from the music and video, to the message and environment, blended together perfectly to create a truly amazing experience.

For the first time, we also had an outdoor sunrise service. It was truly moving to worship in the quiet with the lake and the blue sky as a background. The message had a lot to do with planes, so this may have been one of the first services to feature airplanes as props, since planes destined for DFW Airport were frequently seen overhead.

The Easter message is now available online if you'd like to watch or listen.

This weekend's message talks a lot about the questions surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ. If you're interested in some more background on this, Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle recently posted a four part series on his blog. Mark is a great pastor and author who we recently had the privilege of interviewing for The Blogging Church. If you live in the Seattle area (raise your hands Microsoft people!), you should definitely visit Mars Hill one of these weekends or grab one of their podcasts.

Check out the posts: part one, part two, part three and part four.

Google Guilt

def. A sense of remorse for bringing people to your blog or website through search engines under false pretenses.

I really don't like to disappoint people or let them down. Unfortunately, I do this many times a day to people who I don't even know.

On a blog or website, you can easily find out how many people visit your site. This information is entertaining for a little while, but the true fun lies in where these visitors came from and how they arrived at your virtual home (otherwise known as referrers).

On this blog, a large percentage of visitors come directly from Google. The cool thing is I can see what they searched for and what they found. This is where it became less cool.

I've found that many of these visitors are leaving disappointed, let down, maybe even a bit annoyed (other options provided by the thesaurus - vexed, irked, and in high dudgeon). There are two reasons for this.

First, I like to use common phrases to title my posts, or at least I did the first 12-18 months of this blog. I think the technical word for this may be pun. Here's a sampling...

I wanna be just like you

My post is the first result on Google, above the actual song on Amazon. The subject is A-List bloggers.

More love, more power

A song title that seemed like a brilliant phrase for a post about power outages.

Face it girls, I'm older and have more insurance

Not the title, but still the first result on Google if you're looking for the line from Fried Green Tomatoes. The subject of the post? The 2004 Republican Convention.

You would be amazed at how often people search for these phrases and it bugs me to no end that they are not finding anything remotely related to what they were searching for. Of course, there's something to be said for accidentally coming across a new blog and perhaps that happens in a few instances, but I'm sure the majority hit the Back button as soon as they realize they still haven't found what they're looking for. (Oh no, now random searches for U2 lyrics are going to land on a post about search engine confusion!)

The second reason I have disappointed visitors is The West Wing. Two years ago, I wrote a post entitled West Wing Finale. Since the show is now in its final season and the few remaining episodes are airing, that seems to be a popular search. Unfortunately, my post is in the top 5 despite its age. Every Sunday for the past weeks, thousands of people have been getting up from the couch right after West Wing is over and searching for information about the finale and I've let them down!

And so, this is what I call Google Guilt. There are a few things that can be done about it, though. First, a clever, humorous title can be fun in the short-term, but in the end, it's better to be clear on what the post is about. Second, search engines may want to find better ways to show the date of a post or page. Third, I think I'll rename my post "West Wing Finale 2004". It will help me sleep better on Sunday nights.

Sunday with the Times

The New York Times recently redesigned nytimes.com and I absolutely love it. The look is far more elegant and inviting. I find myself wanting to read things that I would have skimmed in the past. The mark of a good design is that you want to spend more time with it. I have to say, though, that if you aren't reading it on a Mac, you would be amazed at just how good it can look.

Today, there are two great articles worth reading. Condoleezza Rice on Piano is a wonderful story about the Secretary of State's chamber music group that regularly meets and plays in her Watergate apartment. Rice is a classically trained pianist. Her diversity of knowledge and skills is inspiring for someone in public life.

Ben is actually playing Beethoven's For Elise as I write this. He is now in his third year of piano lessons, and though his progress has been amazing, like any 10-year old, it's not his favorite thing. I want to share this story with him so he can see what the ability to make music can be mean in your life.

And yes, I am old enough to remember the famous "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" commercial, which makes this moment even more wonderful.

The second article is a more traditional one, but the type I love: McCain Emphasizing His Conservative Bona Fides. There can be no doubt that McCain is running in 2008, which should make things very entertaining. I was an enthusiastic McCain supporter in 2000.

As long as you're reading about McCain and Rice, here's an interesting game to play. What Democratic ticket would be the best match for a McCain/Rice combination in 2008? I expect both 2006 and 2008 to be heavily Democratic elections, but this pairing presents a number of unique advantages - conservative enough to keep the Republican base enthusiastic, but diverse in thought as well as (obviously) gender and race to attract independent voters.

Technorati Tags:
2008, rice, mccain, nytimes

Six Apart follow-up

Anil Dash, a VP at Six Apart, read The Six Apart Mistake and shared a passionate and thorough response in the comments.

His argument focuses on three things:

1. Six Apart and all of its employees are passionate about blogging,

2. If someone is going to push blogging, Six Apart is preferable to some large, faceless corporation obsessed only with the bottom line.

3. If you truly believe in the power of blogging, you'll do everything you can to get people blogging.

Here's an excerpt:

So there's a responsibility for those of us who love blogs, who did it (and still do) because we love the medium and did it back when there was no money, no funding, and certainly no glamour in it. If this medium is going to exist on a global level, which is starting to happen, let's have it be by a company that's of blogging, and for blogging.

First, let me thank Anil for taking the time to respond. As I mentioned in the original post, Six Apart clearly watches blogs carefully and consistently contributes to the conversation. That is a very good thing.

Second, let me offer my perspective. My post offered essentially two criticisms. The first concerned what I believed to be the company's motivation in pursuing additional markets. Anil's comment did an excellent job of addressing this, but in the process, he made the same blanket assumptions about Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL and their respective employees as I made about Six Apart. I don't think it's a safe to assume that the Microsoft employees building MSN Spaces are any less enthusiastic about blogging.

The second was focused on the slow pace of improvements to TypePad, which Anil didn't address. The company actual rolled out TypePad Widgets last week, which will be of interest to users of all levels. There seem to be some obvious holes that should be filled and I wouldn't choose the priorities they've chosen for new development, but I would never want a company to be solely driven by what users think they want. I just don't want a company to be solely driven by what venture capitalists think they want either.

Six Apart is obviously determined to be the blogging company by offering a solution for every level of user and corporation. Newsgator is pursuing a similar strategy in the world of newsreaders. I don't begrudge them their ambitions and respect their focus on one core area. I just don't know if I'll be along for the ride.

Happy Go Apple

Two wonderful pieces of Apple news this week. First, the new Apple Store in Southlake opens this weekend! We are admittedly very spoiled in our area, with multiple Apple Stores within an short distance, but now an Apple fix will be just 15 minutes away.

The second and much more significant announcement is Boot Camp - new software from Apple that allows you to easily install Windows XP on your Intel-based Macintosh. You can now run Windows natively on the same machines as OS X; you just choose your operating system when you boot the machine. [Read the New York Times article].

This will give many people easy access to both worlds. For Ben, this is a dream come true. He could use his favorite OS most of the time (OS X), but reboot into Windows to play the many games that are available for PCs months before the Mac. I'm confident I'll be hearing a lot about how we need to replace our iMac G5 over the next few months.

Many people have written that this development might reduce the motivation for developers to make Mac versions of software. I don't think that will be the case for most software, but I do think this could make an impact in the gaming area. There are very few Mac-only games, but hundreds of PC-only ones. If I'm developing PC games and know that Mac users can simply boot into Windows to play, I'm likely to invest my time and money on the next version, rather than a Mac version.

So, to sum up...

Note to self: when trying to write a post marking the second anniversary of your blog, try to avoid listening to Simon & Garfunkel.

But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity.
- Homeward Bound

Yeah, that about covers it :)

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