Have you ever taken on a challenge that was just far enough outside your comfort zone that getting to the goal line seemed all but impossible? Of course you have. We can all relate to the feeling of standing at the foot of that proverbial insurmountable peak and thinking it’s just too high a hill to climb. Well, that was me, rebuilding Elegant Insights.
Unless one is a programmer, a software developer, code jockey, or whatever you want to call it, most people who want to build a web site these days use a platform such as Word Press, which allows for a certain amount of cobbling together parts and pieces of desired features, a sort of modular approach, to creating a complete picture – that of an online destination that is inviting to visitors. you know, sort of like digital Leggo. Or, maybe Tetris would be the better analogy, since the idea is to make all the pieces fit together seamlessly.
There was a great deal to take into consideration for the new Elegant Insights online boutique, not the least of which was to identify accessible solutions for web site features that were not only usable by my site visitors, but usable for me. Of course, it all has to actually function, but accessibility was of prime importance for me, and that meant using some of those building blocks that were not necessarily the most popular versions of that particular feature set. The long and the short of it is, it seemed to take forever to finish, and I’m still not really done.
I’m implementing a suggestions box opportunity that I’m calling “Feedback Fridays.” Each week in October, I’ll ask you to take a look at a specific feature on the web site that is either new, or has been changed, so you can let me know if the aesthetics, accessibility, or workflow works for you. Or, frankly, works at all. In fact, I discovered, only after a customer attempted to use the new wish list, that it wasn’t working well. Sometimes, it’s more effective for a user who hasn’t been up to their eyeballs in a project to find the real-world usability issues. Thanks to her feedback, I was able to identify a code conflict about which I had not known. It was necessary to scrap the wish list module that I had been building on, and to start over with something else. Offering feedback will not require anything of you other than to poke around and tell me what you think, and if I need some help from you for testing purposes, I’ll ask, “okay, how is this?” Or, “does it work now?”
After I’m comfortable that the web site seems to be functioning in a way that is acceptable to a majority, I’ll focus on writing content for the blog. I’ve already received a great suggestion for a blog topic, so feel free to send ideas my way if you can think of something jewelry or style related that would be valuable to you. After all, it’s really about the jewelry!
Thanks for reading, and sparkle on!
Laura