Back in the day, 1959/1960, when I was a wet-behind-the-ears newly
minted programmer, long ago and far away, I worked on SAGE Air
Defense software. A more experienced field maintenance programmer
(he had maybe a whole year's experience to my 1/2 year) told me
"one fix to the display is worth ten fixes anywhere else in the
system". He was probably correct in regard to the impression on
the Air Force personnel sitting at the display units. And, I
suspect that ratio has not changed greatly since that time.
I learned this lesson after bringing in first drafts and having the
client unimpressed because nothing at all looked different. Since
then, I've always made sure that the first time the client sees any
work product from me at all, it's clear from the appearance that
things are different.
For instance, in a recent app, I took this form:
http://dfenton.com/DFA/images/OriginalCustomer.jpg
....and converted it to this:
http://dfenton.com/DFA/images/FirstDraftCustomer.jpg
Note that one new feature is added (the search in the upper right),
but it has a completely different look and feel, while actually
adding nothing at all in functionality (though it does correct one
#Name error!).
That didn't end up being the final look the client settled on, but I
got buy-in from the beginning, even if the actual number of new
features was not that great, or that most of the new functionality
was behind the scenes and not terribly visible.
But, silly me, I listen to my customers who want the database
application to solve their business problems rather than "waste"
money making it look glitzy and glittery.
Well, it's not like my method doesn't require *some* changes,
particularly if you're using different font sizes than the original
controls (if they are 8pts you have to resize and reposition them if
you want to change to 10pts, for instance).
Thus, I like your approach, David. Have you considered
packaging the programs and selling them?
What programs? I have certainly considered working up the relevant
submodules into a sample database, but it's always a lot of work to
do that, and I still have a half dozen other such demo projects
half-completed!
