[self setTitle:nil];

I do not feel the slightest bit of remorse about posting this “bug report” that found its way into my inbox. After closing my eyes and muttering “serenity now” over and over I decided these horrible emails could be of some use to me.

Here is the email in question (sensitive bits removed):

Question, whenever I go into application using a productID, we would get a
Search Error!
no images found for productID
but when we use the other search, its okay.
I think its be happening a few days ago.
Plz Advise

I think it should be noted that productID is not redacted. No example was ever provided and yes those are “sentences” formed by an adult.

This is an example of users who do not want to use your software. All this user knows is that a tool they are forced to use is acting differently then they had expected. It turned out to be an incorrect product ID. The tool was acting properly. Despite this I have taken the opportunity to tune the error message to offer the user some suggestions as to what may have gone wrong.

The message was changed from (note the email was not even a copy and paste from the application as they subsituted the product ID for the word “productID”):

No images found for $productID.

To:

No images found for $productID.

• Please make sure the products ID typed is correctly.
• Try searching on the UPC number to confirm the product ID is in fact valid.

Whether or not this change will have an effect on the amount of poorly formed bug reports that flood my inbox I cannot tell. This report is a great example of a user who has to use your software, but also a great example of how you can improve your software.

Just because you have horrible users who turn you into more of a cantankerous asshole with email each does not mean you can not continue to improve the quality of your software.

I am impatiently counting the days until I no longer deal with this crap though.

Every time a developer mentions how their users annoy them I hear the same response:

You will get that anywhere.

I don’t subscribe to this. I started thinking about what I disliked about my users versus what I wanted in a user and came up with one short requirement:

• Bad: Your users have to use your software.
• Good: Your users want to use your software.

My current crop of users that drive me up a wall would never in a million years purchase a piece of software. It is placed in front of them, they have to use it to complete their jobs, for them it is just another cog in the corporate machine. This is the fundamental difference with users in a corporate environment.

I gave notice at my job. Many people exclaim in shock “in this economy?” after learning of this. I understand their worry, but seeing as we have one brief life to live, I am going to not let the mistakes of Washington or Wall Street effect my life decisions. I’ve always wanted to code video games and desktop applications on my own, for myself. I hold by the adage that the best software you will write, is the software where you are the target user.

I am learning that there are a lot of hurdles to overcome so I plan to use this web space to document the process. Going from full time developer to indie software developer is going to be hard, and I am downright scared. I am also uprooting and moving from one coast to another.

Hopefully someone will find the oncoming mess of code, rants, and photographs useful, if at least to serve as a warning.