3by9

Halfway Through The Woods, You Still Have Another Half To Go

There’s an old paradox that goes something like this:

“To walk through the woods you first need to walk halfway through. Then once you’re in the middle, you need to walk half the remaining distance, then half the distance again, and then another half, and you can never successfully make it through the woods.”

This type of dichotomy paradox tries to insinuate that there are an infinite number of steps needed to get across a set distance. The 9rules team is currently deep within the woods on Chawlk (and other stuff) and the further we get in the more it appears trees are still in the way.

When you’re designing and developing a site that has many moving pieces, it’s not just about the code, architecture, and design, it’s about a lot more than that. Chawlk includes many social networking pieces (profiles, friends, private messages, etc.) and once the pages are designed and working the way we want, our job isn’t even close to finished. Everything needs scrutiny, and things that especially need attention include emails we send out and how they’re worded, the “blank slate” screens before actions have taken place or data is stored, the description text we have sprinkled in along the way, and many other things. Just like with a mechanical watch, there are hundreds of moving pieces that all play their part and if even one of the tiniest pieces is broken then the entire watch won’t work.

We’re working hard to get everything right in our latest endeavors because in the past we’ve gotten close to the edge of the woods — didn’t get through — but launched anyway. A lot of our past efforts have been 95% there, and 95% is pretty close to 100% but that 5% you’re missing will immediately creep up and tarnish the 95% you completed flawlessly. A lot of these pain points are high up on our “launch list” now instead of being buried down at the bottom. A coding bug ranks right up there with getting the wording on a notification email just right because they’re both slivers of land we need to traverse before we exit the woods. They both have to be understood and perfected before they can be crossed.