It’s not pretty but it works

In my last project at IBM I was working on some very complicated software. Because it was difficult to follow it was also easy to dislike. But after a long time I came up with this informed opinion.

When you’ve finished rubbishing something you realise how good it is.

This was my version of

if it ain’t broken don’t fix it

In other words:

• until you can find a better solution to the problem then you shouldn’t try to change it.
• and in order to find a better solution you need to understand the requirements.

Now I will be the first to admit that this website is not the prettiest in the world, and being so cluttered it’s difficult to follow. Therefore it’s not a good marketing tool. But there are a number of possible responses.

1. It wasn’t intended to be a marketing tool
2. I’m working on improving the look and feel

What I will say, is that this website, and each of the others that I have developed, do support my objective of being able to satisfy my client’s requirements with solutions that work. So for me, in this particular case, my requirements are function before form.