A Spring, a Board, a Bar, a Trigger
Posted in General on January 7th, 2009 by Alan – Be the first to commentWhat I’ve been working on (storefront software) suffers from exactly what Ian is talking about here. Essentially, how do you get noticed when all you’re doing is building a better mouse trap? It’s a battle between sexiness and utility. Boiled down further, it’s like function versus form. Function can keep you happy. Form just gets you riled up.
There are probably very few people excited about having another piece of shopping cart software to choose from. I imagine the most common thought is “aren’t there hundreds of open source shopping carts out there already?”. Yes, there are. But I’m trying to build something better, and I’m starting from a place of experience. Talk to anyone that has customized and deployed any of the existing solutions and you’ll hear a horror story or two. If I effectively serve a market previously overlooked — developers and designers — and the praises outweigh the criticisms, I’ve done my job and can die peacefully.