tech

Lessons From The Website Downtime

April 27, 2019 Happenings

I had a harrowing time during my website downtime which took me by complete surprise. I was trying to understand the issue which was causing the problem and following up with the tech support team was nothing short of a nightmare. Here’s what I learned from my experience.

I wrote about my experience during the server downtime. It seems like a lot of time has passed and I have aged faster. But thank god, it’s just been three days, although the server issues don’t seem likely to be ending anytime soon. Hours after I wrote a long post on yesterday, the website went down again. Honestly, I had reached the end of my daily quota of patience and I wasn’t sure what support was the technical staff at Bluehost offering me. Last night, a scan was initiated and a malware infection was discovered on the server. A load of malicious .php files were scrupulously dumped in different folders on my site and I was tasked with deleting the garbage. To make the matters worse, the agents had duplicated the root folder so there were duplicates of the infected files that I had to remove. Bravo!

The site went down in less than 4 hours of cleaning the server of the malware infection, then rescanning it for any infected files — I’m still not told how the files got infected though I would see myself just staring at a white browser screen with every refresh. So instead of getting on the live chat and cutting corners, I spent the next hour on the phone speaking with the technical support. He found some plugins that were interfering with the functioning of the site. I had heard that statement so many times in the past 24 hours, but he deactivated the entire list of plugins, that resulted in my site going down again and the white screen reappeared. Then he brought the site up through writing some code in the .htaccess file but I could only see the textual content, not the beautiful theme that I had painstakingly worked on for the past many years. He advised me to activate one plugin at a time and check the website to see if it comes online, to find out the irksome plugin. That exercise took me another hour, in between all the other stuff that I had to complete before the day ended. With the instigating piece of code out of the way the site went up but only the textual version.

I went on the live chat again with the tech-support. This time my site was up and I wanted the theme back, and trust me, I was completely spent by now. I don’t know why but the agents had reinstalled WordPress, just too many times. I later found copies of older versions of zipped WordPress installation files in the File Manager suggesting, the tech support team had tried every trick in the manual to bring the site up. It was closer to midnight, yesterday when the website came up finally after a gruelling ordeal which lasted 3 days! Importantly, the website was online overnight, this hasn’t happened in more than 3 days and that was good news.

There are some positive lessons I learned from this morbid experience which I wanted to document.

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Redefining UX Through Service Design

April 20, 2018 Design

Giving in to my inherent desire for discovering new insights, I stumbled on yet another industry report on UX, this time from Loop11. They have produced an insightful 24-page document about the outlook on UX in 2018, and I wasn’t surprised to see Service Design redefining UX as the methodology for improving the overall customer experience. Consider the following data:

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]

  • 28% consider UX as referring to all the touch points or experiences a user has with a product, service or interface.
  • 14% simply described UX as the ‘user experience’, sometimes going on to mention contact points or interactions.
  • 13% believe UX refers to the emotions and attitudes a user displays or feels about a product, service or interface.[/perfectpullquote]

The respondents are alluding to an approach to map & improve the “touch points” or services integrated with an overall customer experience strategy. In which, the ‘service’ supports a user’s emotional context of the experience during a product’s lifecycle, but also in enabling a structured framework to redefine those intangible experiences that a customer would likely endure, before, during and after experiencing a product or a service. I have briefly covered this concept on this blog where I have spoken about incorporating a 360° strategic outlook “which includes a product’s physical & environmental aspects besides UI”. As digital transformation brings automation and companies look for social innovation, designers need to broaden their UX mindset by not just embracing the functional aspects but also by connecting with various other fields of activities that would indirectly complement the desirability factors of a product or service.

Service Design is a cross-disciplinary practice which combines numerous skills in design, management, and process engineering, in developing user-centered business models that are empathetic to user needs. In other words, it helps to improve and deliver intangible services aimed at remodeling customer experiences.

Canadian Tech and IT Jobs in 2018 from Randstad

January 23, 2018 Happenings

Randstad Canada sent me an email update today titled “Boost your job search in 2018”, in which they included data on Tech and IT related jobs within Canada. Randstad is one of the many staffing agencies in Toronto and they share this data every year, along with the salary range for different roles categorized by Canadian cities which helps job-seekers in tweaking your job search outlook. What surprised me was the absence of any designer/creative role in software development, so where did they go wrong? They have information for UX/UI job seekers on their website which is not part of the 2018 report though, and I have blogged about my hiring methodology to stress upon the importance of getting creative designers onboard for any product development lifecycle.

The UX Design Collective released The State of the UX in 2018 survey in which they have spoken widely about various global UX career trends and one of the key lessons was the rightful transformation of the UX Designer into ‘Product Designer’ in 2018.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]This shift from UX Design to Product Design is only accelerating in 2018. As our role and responsibilities grow inside our companies, understanding more about business and design strategy becomes inevitable.[/perfectpullquote]

Could it be that Randstad ignored this trend of UX Design vs Product Design? If the report mentions tech as “one of Canada’s best job sectors” then digital products could be the driving force behind it and generally, creative design skills should rank higher in demand on par with programmers. I believe it’s a matter of perspectives, and that Randstad got too involved in pursuing “IT/Tech” as an exclusive developer’s domain while keeping the strategic/creative angle outside its purview. Only they could tell why, but 2018 is the time to give the creative (product) designers a fair handshake!

Source: Best Tech and IT Jobs in Canada in 2018 by Randstad Canada

A Report from TECHSPO Toronto 2017

May 20, 2017 General Technology

I was at the TECHSPO 2017 Toronto yesterday at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel, having registered back in December 2016 this was an event highly recommended by an acquaintance to find out the local technology landscape.

I was anticipating a high-energy congregation of tech enthusiasts with several booths as is expected of large trade shows and expos, however, I was left disappointed at the thin crowd and fewer tech companies being represented at today’s event, while I guess my timing went awry because most of the exhibitors were at lunch break! Moreover, I’m glad I attended because there was a lot to discover about digital marketing and VR/AR from the companies (out of 13 that were represented) I was able to interact.

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Apple Is Changing User Behaviour, Not Just User Experience

September 9, 2016 Design Technology

The iPhone 7/Plus launched without the standard 3.5mm audio jack creating a storm on the Internet. The problem isn’t about the missing elements from a traditional user interaction perspective with a device such as the iPhone as it is about changing a user’s perception. It’s indeed very courageous of Apple to remove the audio jack completely replacing it with the lightning connector which means you cannot listen to music while charging (it’ll require a new $40 accessory). Simply put, we can’t charge AND listen to music or take calls simultaneously and we have to keep the iPhones charged. Suggesting that Apple wants the AirPods as your default hearing device regardless. Apple’s users have often had to reluctantly change the way they interact with devices based purely on how Apple defined its product line so ‘courageously’ and regardless of how frustrating it was. The astonished fans complained but eventually caved in. Now, this isn’t the first time that Apple has done something ‘courageous’ with its product line by removing a standard feature or software – the iPads didn’t support Adobe Flash (they still don’t even today), and yet if the sales numbers are correct the audience seems to have loved the iPad! From a product design standpoint with its power to innovate Apple really at the helm of changing user behaviour of this generation unquestionably. Perhaps Apple did contemplate the backlash of its decision to remove the 3.5mm audio jack from the iPhones and the ‘courageous’ comment from Phil Schiller is proof of defending itself from its perched place. So if there’s one product company which is going to affect our lives within the realm of technology and design innovation it’d be Apple.

Here’s Steve Jobs explaining ‘courage’ perfectly with Apple’s products.