In Too Deep

There are times as a software developer that you get overwhelmed by features, additions, error handling and so on that you forget one of the most important elements of your job – user relevance. I would say user experience but in my “experience” I have found the most positive comments from my users come from seeing the software respond in the way they need it to.

For example, when ClickBid was born it was a custom web application designed for a statewide non-profit. One of the board members approached me and cautioned me saying “If I can’t walk up to a computer and place my own bid then I’m not going to sign off on it.” The challenge was that this was a retired fundraiser who never got along well with computers. It was like having to start over stripping out all the cool bells and whistles I had dreamed of adding to the software. I had to drill down to the basics so it could be used by the computer illiterate.

A week went by and my presentation meeting closed in. I was incredibly nervous feeling like as soon as they saw how simple it was they would scoff at paying the final development bill. Immediately the non-savvy board member stepped up and said “My turn. Let’s see if I can do this.” Within 10 seconds, she had signed in and placed her first bid. Overjoyed she signed off on the project and the rest of board members followed suit. My lesson was learned. It’s not what I want or need the software to do, it’s what YOU want and need the software to do.

To this day, ClickBid has continued to partner with development staff to glean valuable information on what bidding software should be. There are a growing number of options out there but at ClickBid we aim to be the most user relevant of the bunch. Therefore, if you ever feel that there is a missing need that ClickBid should be filling, please drop us a line and we’ll get on it for you right away. It’s definitely our pleasure.