Alex Hardy

While watching Kitchen Nightmares I’ve been thinking about writing a post. I think a lot of the advice Ramsay dispenses applies not only to businesses generally, but particularly well to web design and application development.

37signals have beaten me to it. They list some mistakes chefs and restaurateurs make, and draw parallels with our own field. I’ve abbreviated their list, so go read it there and come back for my two cents worth!

Everything to no one

Over-stuffed menu syndrome. Too many dishes, done poorly. You might compare this to the kitchen-sink approach that many developers adopt. A simple concept executed with flair is often the best.

Cook what you know

Or eat your own dog food. If you don’t use your product and others of its kind, how would you know what characterises an excellent product? When I started using simpleContact I soon realised that messages ought not to come from the admin address, because I was sending replies to myself. Version 1.1 corrected that.

Passion for your environment

If you don’t take pride in your work, or are unwilling to invest in a continual learning process, then you need to leave the industry to us professionals.

Here are a couple more that occurred to me and Kevin as we discussed it:

Seek user feedback

Sadly, this is done too rarely. Criticism is more useful than praise! It’s nice to think that a silent majority is happily using your product, but your dealings with users who have a problem or unsatisfied requirement are most valuable.

Is your product the equivalent of a sushi restaurant in a small Yorkshire village? A wise individual said: Just because there’s a gap in the market doesn’t mean there’s a market in the gap. Perhaps yours doesn’t exist?

Mistakes made in the kitchen, should stay in the kitchen

Test your work rigourously. This goes double for fixed media like CD-ROMs. You can’t un-burn a thousand discs because you fucked up (I had to use the F-word once, considering the subject!). Experience has taught me to stick to my guns here. My work is done when I say it is, irrespective of some arbitrary deadline.

Still, errors may slip through and this is when your recovery is all that matters. A swift and honest response may come in the form of an update, but often feels like more than 9/10 companies can manage in this life.

… but there’s nothing he can teach us about swearing

Posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 1:26 pm under Development. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.