Error handling strategies (db related)
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From: Ashley Sheridan on 27 Apr 2010 12:09 On Tue, 2010-04-27 at 12:12 -0400, tedd wrote: > At 4:13 PM +0200 4/27/10, Peter Lind wrote: > >If only the world consisted of smart users ... I think, however, that > >we're generally closer to the opposite. And no, I don't hate users - > >I've just seen too many people do things that were very far removed > >from "smart". > > > >Regards > >Peter > > Peter et al: > > Smart is a relative term. I have one account where the majority of > users are PhD's -- and they indeed have the "smarts" and the > sheepskins to prove it. > > You would be surprised as to how many of those forget their logons > and insist that they did not enter their logons as they were > recorded. For example, I had one user (i.e., fictitious Mary Smith) > who said that "marysmith" was not her logon because she always uses > "msmith" for all her logons -- but that was what was recorded in the > database. > > I tried to explain to her that the database doesn't make this stuff > up, for example how would the script know to use "marysmith" for her > logon if she had not provided it? But somehow it was the script's > fault for not knowing she always uses "msmith". Keep in mind these > are people with PhD's. I have many other stories. > > As I see it, one of the problems we face as developers is confronting > user's egos. They have an image of themselves and our scripts can > threaten that image by making them feel ignorant. We have to deal > with that in a way that informs them, but doesn't demean them in any > fashion. > > Here's a real world example -- over 20 years ago a company made an > electronic hand-held chess game. > > While the game was successful, the company received a considerable > amount of repairs, way over what they had expected. They wanted to > find out why and after an investigation they found that their > software made the computer's chess-moves TOO quickly. So, they place > a time delay into the software so that it would "look" to the user > like the computer was thinking about its moves. That time-delay > solved the problem. > > Apparently, some end-users got pissed when they thought the computer > could so easily beat them. But, if the computer took more time to > beat them, then that was more acceptable and the end-users were less > inclined to throw the game into a wall. > > So with respect to software engineering, how users view what's going > on is important. > > Cheers, > > tedd > > -- > ------- > http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com > Sounds like you've got a few stories that would a lot of people happy were you to share them on the DailyWTF ;) Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
From: tedd on 27 Apr 2010 12:21 At 4:31 PM +0200 4/27/10, Peter Lind wrote: >While I love to rant at stupid users, the truth is probably that >programmers are the ones who should take courses in how users think. >In the end, if I fail to understand my users, it doesn't matter how >great my program is: they'll still fail to use it. Anyway, those are >just truisms :) Nothing new under the sun. > >Regards >Peter Peter: You're right on. I just read three books on the subject: 1. "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. This is a somewhat dated book, but his perspective is "right-on" and is the basis for understanding usability. 2. "Neuro Web Design" bu Susan M. Weinschenk". The theory behind why people do what they do is explained in great detail in this book. It makes a great book to read regardless of if you're trying to sell something on the net or elsewhere. However, this book is focused on selling things to people via the net. 3. "Rocket Surgery Made Easy" by Steve Krug. This is the second book in Steve's "How to do it yourself" in usability studies. It will give you exactly what you need to do to set up inexpensive usability studies. Usability studies are important in software and web design. If developers (and clients) read those books, we would have less problems dealing with users. Cheers, tedd -- ------- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com
From: tedd on 27 Apr 2010 12:23 At 4:23 PM +0100 4/27/10, Nathan Rixham wrote: > >I'm still shocked you guys are still writing code that has errors in it, >what's worse is you know about the errors, and instead of fixing them >you're just telling the user about it! > >:p Here's my code that doesn't contain errors: <?php ?> Cheers, ted -- ------- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com
From: Peter Lind on 27 Apr 2010 12:26 On 27 April 2010 18:21, tedd <tedd.sperling(a)gmail.com> wrote: > At 4:31 PM +0200 4/27/10, Peter Lind wrote: >> >> While I love to rant at stupid users, the truth is probably that >> programmers are the ones who should take courses in how users think. >> In the end, if I fail to understand my users, it doesn't matter how >> great my program is: they'll still fail to use it. Anyway, those are >> just truisms :) Nothing new under the sun. >> >> Regards >> Peter > > > Peter: > > You're right on. I just read three books on the subject: > > 1. "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. > > This is a somewhat dated book, but his perspective is "right-on" and is the > basis for understanding usability. +1. Great book that is. > 2. "Neuro Web Design" bu Susan M. Weinschenk". > > The theory behind why people do what they do is explained in great detail in > this book. It makes a great book to read regardless of if you're trying to > sell something on the net or elsewhere. However, this book is focused on > selling things to people via the net. Will have to look at that, sounds interesting. > 3. "Rocket Surgery Made Easy" by Steve Krug. > > This is the second book in Steve's "How to do it yourself" in usability > studies. It will give you exactly what you need to do to set up inexpensive > usability studies. Usability studies are important in software and web > design. > > If developers (and clients) read those books, we would have less problems > dealing with users. > Haven't read his second, guess I should :) Thanks for the recommendations. Regards Peter -- <hype> WWW: http://plphp.dk / http://plind.dk LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/plind Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fake51 BeWelcome: Fake51 Couchsurfing: Fake51 </hype>
From: tedd on 27 Apr 2010 12:31
At 5:09 PM +0100 4/27/10, Ashley Sheridan wrote: >> > >Sounds like you've got a few stories that would a lot of people >happy were you to share them on the DailyWTF ;) > >Thanks, >Ash Ash: Sharing them here is more direct and meaningful to what we do, but I will investigate what you suggest. Cheers, tedd -- ------- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com |