fun @ work
As most everyone agrees, the portal software that we’re using is a heavy beast – hard to work with, and slow on the end-user side. So, one of the managers had a great (in principle) idea to have a separate version of the page: less functionality – just the essentials – but quick to load.
The usual game of “add a feature, lose a feature” then started between the managers. At one time or another, the “lightweight homepage” has oscillated between a mobile page, a static HTML chunk, and a substitute for an existing disaster recovery page. When the managers came to me for input, I outlined the essential intranet functions that we’ve identified in our previous studies, but said that I need high-level information about the platform before I can flesh out the design – you know, easy stuff, like whether or not this thing would be customizable.
Making decisions that could be traced back to you is not something that smart managers do, so the committee found another designer on my team who didn’t raise as many questions – and who proceeded to struggle mightily against the lack of definition. Finally, the edict came from above: separate the mobile part out into a separate project.
The game of hot potato continued with renewed vigor, to the point that my manager pulled the other designer off the project, as her time was being wasted. Finally, a prototype emerged – and, since so many people were out on vacation, the developer asked me to be the official tester for the release.
Usually, testing involves logging and trying out all the functions as a final sanity check. So, in I go, to be greeted by a blue banner with the application name, a line of text promising a link to the mobile version of our time reporting system, and an email link in the footer. That’s it.
Thinking that I was missing something, I checked with the developer. Even though we were on IM, I could almost hear a deep sigh. No, that was all that made it.
On the bright side, the page is about as lightweight as it gets...
The usual game of “add a feature, lose a feature” then started between the managers. At one time or another, the “lightweight homepage” has oscillated between a mobile page, a static HTML chunk, and a substitute for an existing disaster recovery page. When the managers came to me for input, I outlined the essential intranet functions that we’ve identified in our previous studies, but said that I need high-level information about the platform before I can flesh out the design – you know, easy stuff, like whether or not this thing would be customizable.
Making decisions that could be traced back to you is not something that smart managers do, so the committee found another designer on my team who didn’t raise as many questions – and who proceeded to struggle mightily against the lack of definition. Finally, the edict came from above: separate the mobile part out into a separate project.
The game of hot potato continued with renewed vigor, to the point that my manager pulled the other designer off the project, as her time was being wasted. Finally, a prototype emerged – and, since so many people were out on vacation, the developer asked me to be the official tester for the release.
Usually, testing involves logging and trying out all the functions as a final sanity check. So, in I go, to be greeted by a blue banner with the application name, a line of text promising a link to the mobile version of our time reporting system, and an email link in the footer. That’s it.
Thinking that I was missing something, I checked with the developer. Even though we were on IM, I could almost hear a deep sigh. No, that was all that made it.
On the bright side, the page is about as lightweight as it gets...
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