Comments on: The Top 10 Technology Terms that Confuse Clients

By: dejah

dejah — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:27:09 +0000

Tyran, those url referrals from Google don’t actually come from people typing urls into Google. There is at least one version of Firefox that when you type a partial address in the bar, instead of just slapping a www. and a .com on it like IE used to do, Firefox looks the term up in Google and refers from there.

Having written the book on Google Analytics (and currently struggling through drafting the 3rd edition), I find that I have trouble explaining what analytics are when Average Jane politely asks what my book is about but does not want a huge production. Web site owners, much less your average chick on the street, barely know what site statistics are much less how statistics differ from analytics. I tell people it’s “a page counter on steroids.”

Oh… and try explaining “bandwidth quota” to a 7 year old. Thank goodness she only wants to play Tux Racer!

By: sitehatchery

sitehatchery — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:24:33 +0000

Navigation. I use menu item, instead, or the links on the side (or top) of the page.

Links. One of my clients calls every hyperlink on the page a button. “Can you add a button here”?

I get the typing the URL in google all the time. It’s annoying.

Attach a file. “How do I do that?”

“Web Developer” = Blank stares + “I don’t know anything about that” (which, by the way, is why I get paid the big bucks)

Yes, MANY of my clients NEEDED a content management system, but then had me enter the content. A year later, they haven’t touched it. That’s alright though… giving the client the opportunity for control is a good selling point. And truly, they do intend to use it. But if I enter the content, the control factor is one element that tips the scales to more sales.

By: omnicity

omnicity — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:11:56 +0000

I don’t think there is any reason for ‘Digital TV’ to be on that list, pretty much every time that it is used, the Digital bit is important, otherwise you would have just said TV.
Secondly, everyone understands what TV is, so are not going to be overly confused if they don’t understand the other word – it’s still TV.

By: samanime

samanime — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:33:07 +0000

Lol, Ajax: “You mean that bathroom cleaner stuff?”

It would have been nice if this study focused on words that are still relevant in our lives today. Of that list, only half of them are words that ever -might- come up in a real situation. Those other five aren’t really relevant…

… well, I guess it is a general “technology”, so maybe the other terms are commonly used in other aspects of Computer Science… maybe…

By: Rajesh Wadhwani

Rajesh Wadhwani — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:49:06 +0000

Cache – when we use this word (browser cache) with clients, they don’t have a clue of what it is but they easily ask us and they seem to remember its meaning sometimes.

Easy way to explain – Your browser caches (saves the webpage in computer memory) the page and sometimes you don’t see the uo-to-date content because it’s reading from the cache, to re-load the page, try refreshing (F5 or Shift+F5).

By: Tarh

Tarh — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:47:21 +0000

Just because I can watch an episode of Heroes later than it was originally broadcast does not affect the course of time itself!

This made my day! ^.^

By: adesignrsa

adesignrsa — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:41:11 +0000

@ralph.m I just stress the search engine friendliness/findability aspect of good coding practice and you’re right…. standards compliancy sounds a bit pompous, and something you “should” be doing anyway. Although many don’t.

Regarding the exact acronyms like HTML, CSS, PHP, AJAX or whatever, I don’t even bother anymore. An HTML/CSS guy is called a “layout coder”, the PHP coder is called the “functional programmer” and whatever other role is given a “lay” name. Saves me time explaining.

By: ralph.m

ralph.m — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:25:03 +0000

Might as well throw “CSS” and “Standards-Compliant” into the mix as well. I always have to content myself with saying I’m using best-practices and hope that they care.

By: Tyran

Tyran — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:19:06 +0000

I agree with the search and address bar confusion, a significant part of my site stats are taken up by webusers entering http://www.dcprint.co.uk into Google! Not sure if this is caused by genuine confusion of how a browser is mean’t to be used or just interlectual laziness.

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:30:09 +0000

@adesignrsa
I agree – users do appear to be confused by the address bar. I’ve seen many clients type their web address into Google and choose the first search result.

Web2.0 and AJAX have evolved from pseudo-technical to meaningless marketing terms that sales people use to sound more impressive!