[thelist] targeting effectively (was: navigation through form posting)

Matt Liotta mliotta at iname.com
Sun Mar 24 19:52:00 CST 2002


You are all over the place. First you say it is more like 80%, then you say
you can get around 99% on your projects. Finally, you say you can achieve
100% unless you want to win a design award, which would then reduce you back
to 99%. So what is it? The 80/20 rule or the 99/1 rule?

Well that is all great, but you can make you site functional as per
requirements for all 100% or even 99% for that matter, without winning a
design award? Certainly not on any on my projects.

Personally, I think you have experience in certain markets that allows for
the numbers you are suggesting. However, I think you have no clue about some
other important markets where those numbers just can't be reached.

-Matt

On 3/24/02 5:15 PM, "aardvark" <roselli at earthlink.net> wrote:

>> From: Matt Liotta <mliotta at iname.com>
>>
>> I never said I was working hard to reach 90%. I was pointing out that
>> you can easily reach 90% of your target, but trying to get the last
>
> actually, it's more of an 80/20 rule, instead of 90/10... even if all your
> users
> are on IE6, for instance, a chunk of them will have some whack installs, be
> behind firewalls, be using it on something like AOL, be surfing with stuff
> turned off, etc...
>
>> 10% can cost you more than it is worth to do. Now maybe the situation
>
> yes, it can, but don't assume that it will... don't just spout the 90% number
> for
> all cases, because once you've done that, you've lost the ability to be
> objective on a project-by-project basis...
>
> i'm trying to demonstrate that your assertion is, for the most part, flawed...
> will
> there be exceptions?  yes... but i think you're limiting yourself by arguing
> for
> them first, and relying too heavily on browser-specific features...
>
>> that some or even most people are in here allows them to easily get
>> 99% of their target, but that doesn't change the fact that it will
>> still cost more development and QA time to get the last 1%. You can
>
> it may, or it may not...
>
> in fact, i can get to that 99.5% mark on many projects, but only the 99%
> mark on others... all *without* incurring extra costs... yes, there is a
> cut-off,
> but instead of that cut-off being determined by my own assumptions, it's
> based on that final little asymptotic curve that pushes it out -- and it's
> usually
> not nearly as steep as you think...
>
>> move the numbers around all you want, but the bottom-line is
>> unchanged. There is simply no way to easily code for every browser and
>> platform out in the wild.
>
> well, i'd argue that...
>
> on one hand, i can make a site that will work on 100% of browsers/platforms...
>
> on the other hand, if i want to win a design award, i might have to cut that
> back to 99%...




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