JoshSweeney

Ease of WordPress, Documentation of CodeIgniter, and Support of NuSphere

Although I have yet to formally introduce WapSnap and release a Beta version, I have been thinking fairly in depth about how I would like a software company to be run if I decided to push WapSnap or any other project into the main stream. I have worked for multiple software companies and used enough products to believe that I can at a minimum spot what should and shouldn’t be done. Anything I miss will be an educational ride.

Ease of Use

When it comes to web based applications I do not know of any application that is as easy to use as WordPress. WordPress has always been well known for a straight forward installation that can get you blogging quickly. Although I cannot speak for myself, I have friends that have switched from developing websites and applications in Joomla and Drupal over to WordPress because it is said to be very logical and easy to customize. With the introduction of the one click upgrade I can see how that would be so. One of the biggest problems I have seen in using open source solutions is that the script kiddies get the security updates when you do and usually they can write an exploit script before you can upgrade and test an application along with all of it’s 3rd party components.

With this information in hand I have decided that when my application rolls out that I would like it to have the ease of use of WordPress.

Documentation

Having to work on a poorly documented project or application has to be one of the biggest time waisters. When something isn’t documented well you spend most of your time debugging and chasing down answers in a forum instead of moving forward with what needs to get completed.

This is why I want documentation like CodeIgniter. When I started searching for a PHP framework to pick up, I started by looking in the documentation section of each. First stop, the getting started guide, then to the full docs, and then to the forums to see the amount of threads that go without a response. When I got to CodeIgniter I started with the first video tutorial which actually worked and was easy to follow. Wow what a concept, I say this sarcastically because this was not the case with many other frameworks that I tried.

Another positive of the CodeIgniter documentation is that it is easy to follow. Everything is separated out and named logically, this way if you do a search you are likely to find what you are looking for. I also enjoy that it doesn’t read like a 500 page manual and it isn’t a huge PDF that has to be churned through page by page. The CodeIgniter guide makes use of simple elements like line separators, code boxing, and bolding that makes the entire guide easy to read and follow.

With this information in hand I have decided that when my application rolls out that I would like it to have the documentation of CodeIgniter.

Support

I think that anyone who has been in the IT arena for any length of time understands what I mean by poor support.

This is when every time to call with a problem you only get a message machine.

This is when your SLA’s are never met and nobody seems to care.

This is when you post to a forum and nobody answers.

These all constitute poor support.

Nusphere is one company that I have dealt with recently that has fantastic support. To start with, even before I bought PHPed I posted to the forum and quickly had a response. This has been the case for every forum post that I have added to the Nusphere site. Nobody ever asked if I was a customer,how many licenses I had, or did the tiered support two step. Another honorable mention from a recent voyage is Slicehost. Slicehost provided multiple support routes where I didn’t even need to open a ticket. I went to their chat channel and had a solution within minutes.

With this information in hand I have decided that when my application rolls out that I would like it to have support like NuSphere.

_{»crosslinked«}

Tags: codeigniter, documentation, ease of use, Nusphere, support, WapSnap, wordpress

Driving New User Adoption

As a technology consultant of small to medium businesses I am always presented with challenges that require me to learn new software or technology. In learning these new systems I have come to have a more intimate understanding about the challenges with adopting technology solutions.

The common theme that I have found is that the easier software is to learn, the more likely someone is to adopt a solution. This doesn’t mean that the UI has to be 100% dummy proof or it has to be #1 in its market. There has been a many times that I have passed on what was considered to be the best software in its space because the documentation just didn’t get me to where I needed to be.

While learning all of these new solutions I have found three areas that make the biggest difference when someone is a new user. These are the documentation, step-by-step hows to’s ( video/written ), and the forum thread response rate.

The first place that most people start is with the documentation. They want to know how to install, if it has dependencies, what it runs on, and every other piece of information they need to get moving forward. I have made it through many installations only because of prior knowledge in other areas. I have also had the experience to work with customers that did not have the prior experience nor adequate documentation. This is even more important in the open source software world. In open source the user may not have a salesperson or sales engineer which means that if they hit a roadblock and cannot find an answer in a timely manner then they go elsewhere.

Step-by-step tutorials are the next step after full documentation. Documentation is normally “the manual” that goes over product sections and provides explanations into what each section does. The tutorials are what really gets the user moving forward in figuring out exactly what to do in the areas of the product that they need. The most effective structure for tutorials that I have found is to keep them short and problem or area specific. For videos short would mean about 5 minutes. It is also helpful to new users to have tutorials in two sections. The first being tutorials that build on each other and the second being tutorials that stand alone. This way if someone wants to sit down and go through the getting started scenario just learn about the solution then they can. If they already have an understanding of the solution then they can pick tutorials that fill an immediate need to learn a specific area.

The last area that supports new user inquiries is the forum. After a user has been given good documentation and tutorials, the only place that is left for them to find answers is in the forum. Many companies show that they have a forum for assistance but I have found that the true indicator is activity. If I am trying out new software and end up looking in the forum and seeing that a large portion of threads have zero replies then I can assume that when I post, I have a high probability of leaving empty handed. For the sake of user adoption, I would say that you need to get those threads answered.

For new users to adopt software they need answers as quickly as possible. When they get answers quickly and efficiently they are more likely to move forward with adoption and they have less of a reason to search for other solutions.

Tags: documentation, forums, new users, tutorials, user adoption