Sometimes We Forget

I know that with a title like "Sometimes We Forget" you may be expecting a deep, meaningful philosophical blog entry about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. Sorry to disappoint, but this is not the case. I am simply talking about forgetting. We are all guilty of it. Sometimes I forget that clients are not as geeky as I am and simply don't operate at the same level as I do when it comes to the web. Let me explain - a few months ago something fascinating happened on a conference call with a client. A disclaimer is important here - we were 6 months into the project and the process had been going quite well. We were nearing the end of a very successful pre-production phase when the upper management of the organization wanted to enter the conversation to better understand where we were and to be quite honest to learn how their money was being spent. I was very happy about this meeting. I would rather they become involved at that point then 8 weeks later when we were knee deep in development. Okay, so now the stage is set. I was in the middle of explaining how a large image on the Home Page could be anything they wanted it to be - a promotional item, a rotating image gallery, a Spotlight on one of their programs - a picture of a dog - literally anything. I explained how the image could link to anywhere - on their site or elsewhere. I was on a roll, when the Executive Director stopped me and said "You mean you can click on the image and it can bring up another page?"  At that moment one of my developers shook his head and mouthed to me "did she really just say that?" Yes she did. And I am confident that many of you out there would react the same way my developer did. But this is in no way a story about client ignorance. It's actually quite the opposite - it's about vendor ignorance.  As someone who for the last 13 years has been intimately involved in all things Web I sometimes forget that there are many people out there who simply do not "get" technology as well as we (web developers) do. The Executive Director's question was a wake up call for me. Sometimes I forget that even the simplest piece of functionality can go over someone's head. The Executive Director is not a web developer; chances are she has no idea what CSS means or what JavaScript is. That's not her job - her job is to run a non profit organization - to raise money and make the world a better place to live. It is my job to remember that and make sure I am explaining things on her level by educating, guiding and inspiring without confusing her or being condescending. I quickly changed the course of the conversation, answered her question and brought it down a notch in terms of geekiness and technology. At the end of the call the Executive Director thanked me for taking the time to clearly explain how things were going to work and what she and her staff could expect when managing the site. This was a very important lesson for me. I eat, breathe and sleep the web and technology. It is in my blood and well....sometimes I forget that not everyone thinks like me.