The 3-click Software Rule

Published on 19 Mar, 2025

Avoiding Customer Exasperation and Techno Rage

It’s widely accepted in business that ‘there’s nothing so hard as keeping it simple’, and that’s so true in the world of software, whether you’re a developer, a customer, or an employee. Regularly, we stagger with incredulity at many of the applications and processes we see around us - and how they ever passed a usability test is beyond us.

Just think back to your own recent experiences - perhaps when you tried to make a booking, check-in for a journey, register for something, or when you bought or returned an item. I bet you can recall immediately examples of frustration and annoyance with an online system or mobile app.

The ‘Big Boys’ are just as guilty

A friend of mine told me of a recent poor experience with a (major) airline app when holidaying abroad. Everything worked fine in the UK, but overseas the app wouldn’t allow him to check-in for the return journey – and this was the ONLY thing he needed the app for!

Another friend was complaining to me about trying to book a Padel tennis court for single match as part of a payment share for the court hire. Not only did the company require a full sign-up procedure with a dual authentication password process, he needed to set up an on-going monthly fee, that could of course, be cancelled at any time - talk about painful for a one-off game!

And of course, I could go on, and doubtless you’re now smiling ruefully and recalling some similar abysmal experience that happened to you recently.

Avoidable Complexity

The reasons for badly designed software are simple. Requirements are conceived by business leaders and handed to the IT department to project manage the development, either in-house or with a third-party developer.

Hard pressed IT project managers are usually spinning too many plates already, and they typically brief developers in a robotic, non-empathetic way that most developers understand.

This ingrained process guarantees the developer never fully understands the requirements or the reasons for the change, and they respond to the binary request exactly as asked, without ever really

appreciating why they’re doing it, or putting themselves in the customer’s shoes.

And as things are never clear to the developer, the usual back and forth exchange of emails and calls takes place, with both sides becoming evermore frustrated as change after change is required.

The result is badly written code that’s been revamped time and again for things that were not originally briefed or understood. Work arounds and redesigns mean the software becomes clunky, non-intuitive, and a pain to navigate through … sounds familiar?

A Different Approach

We take very different approach, and by working very closely with the customer in the briefing and design stages, we ensure we deeply understand the burning needs behind the project. We forensically explore the desired outcomes of the system, asking all the ‘what if’ questions, and rooting ourselves in the end-user experience.

When I was a young guy starting out, a very experienced and well-respected CTO told me that you should be able to action every software task in 3-steps – anything more suggests a poor design or concept.

Furthermore, we know that all systems have a shelf life, and during that lifecycle they’ll probably need to be augmented and upgraded. Our team develop software that’s built for the future, and written in such a way that changes and developments can be easily incorporated into the original code. This ‘modular’ approach enables systems to be built upon without a negative impact.

We understand that software development is not a ‘one hit wonder’ and it must evolve as efficiently as possible to maximise ROI and customer satisfaction.

Excellence Built-in

Everybody claims to be excellent, but we really do put ourselves firmly in the customers shoes, testing and re-examining our designs and plans from all angles to anticipate every eventuality.

It’s why Varistha’s known for first class development that exceeds everyone’s expectations.

You’ll find more information about our services at our website … and if you’d like to contact me directly, please email me at: sathya@varistha.co.uk

The 3-click Software Rule

Avoiding Customer Exasperation and Techno Rage

The ‘Big Boys’ are just as guilty

Avoidable Complexity

A Different Approach

Excellence Built-in

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