For a growing startup, customer support is one of the most important things. You need to be talking to them to:

• Keep them happy! Happy users talk to others about their experiences.
• Gain insight into how your users are thinking and what they need.
• Find out what is working, what is not work and what is confusing in your product.

We receive many support emails every day. We also have multiple people responsible for our products. That’s why I researched a lot about the helpdesk solutions and found out that they are too complex, confusing and difficult to maintain. Instead we have been using Gmail for many years and it worked well for us.
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Today, I was surprised to discover that I already have 74 Google Docs documents and pretty much stopped using Microsoft Office for the last year. It certainly did not happen intentionally. I think I’ve first started using Google Docs in 2006. I have been using more and more Google Docs since then. Today I have no need for Microsoft Office and I am surprisingly pretty happy about it.
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I am always fascinated with good writing. Maybe because it has many things in common with good software. A good user interface just flows. It is invisible. You get the task done without confusion. It might even be fun. Good writing has that quality as well. It captures the reader’s attention. Writing becomes invisible and the story becomes the reality. Both good writing and good software flows with the user. They provide a sense of accomplishment.

When I was in school, it took me all weekend to write a paper with couple of pages. Some people could write that in an hour. It was tough for me. Especially since English was my second language. But here is the interesting part. I always liked writing. It was tough but I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed every minute of it. My ideas were probably not that great. My writing was pretty bad. But it felt great to put things on paper.

In software, you start with a zero byte file. It is like an empty sheet of paper. Then you put things on it. Sometimes work on it for months. You get ideas and put them there. Instead of words, you code the ideas. Suddenly those ideas become reality for the user. If you are lucky, millions of people might even run the code you created.

A good writing is usually simple. Short sentences are good. Being to the point is good. Same applies to software. It is very hard work to make a user interfaces simple. The first draft you create is usually a very complex peace of mess. Then you work on it and refine it. You Keep it Simple, Stupid. KISS principle applies both to writing and software.

[Some thoughts I have had while reading a book called “On Writing Well” by Williaam Zinsser.]

We have just started using DropBox here at Interlogy offices and we are really excited about it. The Mac application works like a charm but they also support Windows and Linux versions.

Basically you have Dropbox folder on your computer and whatever you put there, it also shows up on other users you are sharing the folder with. It is fast and easy to use. We will probably start using it instead of email attachments. Since you can also send comments using the tool.
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When we design software our goal is to make complex things easy for webmasters. So, we have to constantly think about the user interface. We sometimes redesign same functionality many times until we find a way that is easy to use but still flexible.

Today, we had another breakthrough idea on the new product we are working on. I define a breakthrough idea as one that make you say “how in the world I didn’t think of that before”. They are simple and elegant solutions to seemingly complex problems. Before we come up with an idea like that, we usually have a big mess. We are stuck and cannot find a good way out. We are almost ready to assume that there are no good solutions. We have thought of everything but the ideas we have are at best acceptable. They are not great. We don’t get excited when we think about implementing them. I think this is an important point. If we are not excited about what we are doing, we are probably doing it wrong.

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Just came back from my two weeks in Bodrum. I like doing some light reading on vacation. Business novels are especially go well under the sun since they are both enjoyable easy-reads and still can help you learn and grow.

The first business novel I read was The Goal couple of years ago. It was a great read and very thought provocative. After that I tried to find and read as many business novels as I can. Unfortunately, there are not many in this genre. I also did not find any web resources on business novels. So, today I am sharing the best business novels I have read. If you know any good ones missing below please feel free to post on the comments section.
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Until couple years ago, doing anything more than simple form validations or image mouseovers with JavaScript was considered drudging work. Not many people understood or appreciated this small but very powerful language that run on our browsers. It wasn’t even seen as a serious programming language. Fast forward to today suddenly it is the new cool thing. People are writing Drag and Drop User Interfaces that can edit graphics and save your data on the background.

So, what happened? This is very amazing. Today almost nothing has changed about the underlying technology but suddenly our thinking has shifted. JavaScript is not seen as a hack any more. People are now making very complex applications with it. JavaScript is not ugly any more. There are beautifully written libraries that can do powerful things. JavaScript is not a light language any more. The most exciting web applications written today use it extensively.
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I have been looking and looking for a good intiutive solution for form building. There are tens of form builder sites and products on the web and they are all crappy. I am guilty as well. I made my share of ugly form builders. But I believe I finally solved the problem. It was so exciting that it will soon be available as a stand alone product.
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I know I promised to talk about the new product I am working on. But I will have to wait couple more days for that. Today I will describe how I setup a backup system for my sites. I have always found that backing up sites in a some CD or DVD very useful. It feels more reliable when you can keep a hard copy with you. Let’s review the other options:
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Recently I have noticed something. Everyday I spent at least an hour reading some blogs and forums. The interesting thing about this is that I don’t feel this as a waste of time. On the contrary, it is usually educational and provides me energy and excitement for the stuff I am doing. I am mostly reading content about web development and software business. It is pretty cool to be able to find people with similar interests, people who are writing like talking, people who think about stuff. So I decided I should do it too. I have a lot of ideas. They sometimes burn me, because I cannot find someone to share most of the time. I have created successful software tools and bootstrapped my own company so I must have something to share. But, if I am doing it, I would like to do it right.
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