Reply to: Working with utterly untechy people

[OwlHoot]

Start by asking him if he's kept the box and receipt for his computer.

On the grounds that he should pack it up and return it, as he's too stupid to use it.

I'm tempted, Mich, very tempted.

(He's another one of these compulsive freebie downloaders, although having been bitten so many times by viruses and resource hoggers, he's a bit more discriminating these days.)

[Mich the Tester]

Someone I know just can't grasp the distinction between an install program, the one you download, and the installed program.

I've tried a chicken and egg analogy (The install program is the egg, which "hatches" into the actual program that runs after you install it on the C drive). But the other day I was berated for having advised him to save his install programs in separate directories on an external drive, along with licence keys where applicable. He did that, but then went and installed them on the same drive instead of the C drive and now of course complains that nothing runs without the external drive being plugged in with the same letter!

What do you _do_ with people like that?!

Start by asking him if he's kept the box and receipt for his computer.

[OwlHoot]

Someone I know just can't grasp the distinction between an install program, the one you download, and the installed program.

I've tried a chicken and egg analogy (The install program is the egg, which "hatches" into the actual program that runs after you install it on the C drive). But the other day I was berated for having advised him to save his install programs in separate directories on an external drive, along with licence keys where applicable. He did that, but then went and installed them on the same drive instead of the C drive and now of course complains that nothing runs without the external drive being plugged in with the same letter!

What do you _do_ with people like that?!

[jmo21]

There are good reasons why I've specialised in B2B interfacing and back end integration stuff

Thankfully, I'm not a full time UI guy, I don't think I could handle this 100% of my time:

Oatmeal 1
Oatmeal 2

[lilelvis2000]

Software and printed materials on nature, for children/schools mainly.

I had to strongly resist putting my brother's fabulous animation of a butterfly on the front page of the website. It was 4.7Mb.

My website is clean. But could do with a video to describe my services better.

I have heard of some success stories on facebook. Certainly getting your own page could prove worthwhile and with facebook you could target the demographics and interests with ads. Might be worth a go with a tight budget of course.

How about video demos of your products - nothing fancy and with the right site on YouTube could also pull in more punters.

I go to these free seminars put on by the local enterprise trust about web marketing, youtube, twitter etc.. - worthwhile IMHO.

[2BIT]

sounds like a client from hell

[SueEllen]

vWorker.com: More capable, accountable and affordable. Guaranteed.

Put the project on there and you'll get plenty cheapness and it turns out, plenty quality too.

Interesting the top 10 don't contain anyone from SE Asia.

[PRC1964]

Great idea! Anyone here a few months valuable work experience for 5 quid?

vWorker.com: More capable, accountable and affordable. Guaranteed.

Put the project on there and you'll get plenty cheapness and it turns out, plenty quality too.

[xoggoth]

Maybe a share of future profits

Great idea! Anyone here a few months valuable work experience for 5 quid?

[PAH]

Depending on what your product/service is you may find that using Facebook as a promotional tool is completely useless. Facebook users tend to stay on Facebook there as users of other social networking sites are more likely to click on links to external sites.

Though if an android app has been worth doing maybe a facebook app is possible?

For cheap IT resource maybe there are some benched contractors on here who are either bored or could do with a few quid and willing to do a deal? Maybe a share of future profits as AtW mugged some people with, allegedly.

[doodab]

Issues I've had with users this week.

user1 - Why do we have to click the save button? can't it just save itself?

user2 - How do I get to the form? (note: it's a website)
me - the address is etc......
user2 - so I type that into google then? (it's an internal website too)
me - no, at the top of Internet Explorer there is an address bar...
user2 - ah yeah ok.......nope doesn't work.
me - can you send me a screenshot
user2 - ah, it's working now.

There are good reasons why I've specialised in B2B interfacing and back end integration stuff

[MrMark]

I prefer "utterly untechy people" to those with a little knowledge sometimes...

[jmo21]

Issues I've had with users this week.

user1 - Why do we have to click the save button? can't it just save itself?

user2 - How do I get to the form? (note: it's a website)
me - the address is etc......
user2 - so I type that into google then? (it's an internal website too)
me - no, at the top of Internet Explorer there is an address bar...
user2 - ah yeah ok.......nope doesn't work.
me - can you send me a screenshot
user2 - ah, it's working now.

[xoggoth]

What are these products exactly?

Software and printed materials on nature, for children/schools mainly.

I had to strongly resist putting my brother's fabulous animation of a butterfly on the front page of the website. It was 4.7Mb.

[SueEllen]

That's another favourite of hers. We should hire somebody young to market us on Facebook etc and advise on a "with it" approach and how to improve the "wow factor" of our products.

Who she imagines we are going to get out of profits of under £4k that is any good I am not sure. The only young person we could interest for that money would probably just be after a chance to walk out with our PCs while we weren't looking.

Depending on what your product/service is you may find that using Facebook as a promotional tool is completely useless. Facebook users tend to stay on Facebook there as users of other social networking sites are more likely to click on links to external sites.