The Car Analogy

As developers, we’re often involved in client meetings and called upon to explain technical details in a fairly “layman’s term” way to help communicate the idea to the client. I’ll put my hand up and say that I sometimes get carried away and go on a wild technical spiel, only to look across the meeting table and be confronted with gazing, confused eyes.

Since some clients may not fully understand what the fudge I’m talking about, I find that using a car analogy helps portray what I’m trying to convey. Here are some of my favourites:

The Re-skin – do we just spray the car red, or change the interior, seats and wheels?

It’s all good and well when the client is only after a design revamp to pretty up their 1998 website and potentially remove their “Best optimised with Internet Explorer” badges, however we all know that the “re-skin” almost always leads to a complete rebuild. So, do we just spray the car a new colour, or are we replacing the interior with leather seats, powered windows and rolling some new shine 18” wheels?

Bugs/Updates – the scheduled car service

Nearing the end of the development phase, QA is underway and tickets are logged with various bugs and issues that need rectifying. These bugs are simply that, problems with the flow and functionality of the site, either backend logic or frontend aesthetics. Like a website, a car needs servicing or for more pressing bugs, a “recall” prior to launch.

Responsive vs Adaptive Mobile – convertible car or a motorcycle

I’ve found that explaining responsive and adaptive mobile design to clients is sometimes the trickiest. Responsive design is when the website reacts to the browser size, be it resizing manually by the user or viewing a mobile device. The front-end conforms to the device viewport and scales accordingly. Adaptive design enables us to serve completely different content and design, controlled via the backend. Let’s say you’re driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and you want to take in the best view around and above you. Responsive would be driving a vehicle with a soft top roof, then dropping the roof as you cross over, taking in all the views. Adaptive would be switching over to a motorcycle and riding across, a completely different form of transport with what you began with.

After hours support – roadside assistance

It’s 2.34am and your website is having problems. Users cannot complete the contact form nor register – you need assistance, fast. After hours support is much like roadside assistance. Instant help, on the dial each time, every time.