If you read about improving traffic to your site or selling a product you have no doubt heard about branding. When I think of branding I am remind of growing up on the farm. I can still smell the mixture of red hot metal and seared flesh. Just like the brand on cattle identifies them as some ones property establishing a brand for your web site or product does the same thing.

 Examples of this are the golden arches of McDonald’s, the apple of Apple and I am sure now that you think of it several more come to mind. An effective brand will create an emotional response in the consumer. Why an emotional response? Well research has proven that if an advertiser can create an emotional response in the consumer the consumer will have a great chance of remembering the message.

 I recently found this article from Microsoft about branding with in a piece of software. If you are a programmer this is really an interesting read and I would recommend reading it.

 Branding seems to be extremely important to marketing people. For some reason I never seem to fully grasp the marketing concepts. However now that I am building software as an independent developer this has become more important to me. If people do not know about my products they surely will not buy them.

 So how do you let people know about your products? Well that is an easy one to answer, you advertise. But wait a minute, how do you make sure you get the most effective advertising? How do you advertise on a budget? Should you focus your advertising to your potential market?

 These are important questions that need to be answered. To be honest I am not 100% sure on the answers to these questions. If you are a marketing guru please use the contact form at the bottom of that page to contact me. I do know I have to do some more research on marketing so that I can answer these questions. I would hate to invest more money into advertising than I am going to generate from software sales. But I guess it is a risk one has to take.

 My biggest decision has been if I should brand my software under the Tenacious Creations name or use a new name. To that extent I having even researched some over names. I was shocked to see how many of them already have domains registered with that name. No web site there, just people holding onto the domain name hoping to make a quick buck. That is where Tenacious Creations has an advantage, it has been registered for a few years and is easy to remember. The down side is it is difficult to spell and easy to misspell.

 Next is a logo, I don’t really have a logo for Tenacious Creations. Unless you count the coyote.

 In any case it looks like learning about marketing is going to be an interesting adventure. Plus it should make for some good blog posts. I plan to post what I learn so maybe other people can learn from my successes and failures. I hope I get a lot of comments and suggestions from you the readers.

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 Do you often work in multiple languages? Are you learning a new language? Have you ever had the need to translate something quickly and on the fly?

 Well if you answered yes to any of the above questions and you are working with English/German/Russian/French or Japanese and running Mac OS X then I have a great solution for you. All you Windows users I think you should petition the author of this software to release a version for Windows as it truly is a great application.

 Jisho 2.3 has just been release I have been fortunate enough to get the author of this great software to answer a few questions for me. Even if you are not interested in this great dictionary software the author has some unique insights of life and things in general. Now to the interview….

1. Can you please describe what Jisho is?

   At its core Jisho is a Japanese-English dictionary. Beyond that though, it supports Japanese-German/Russian/French searches as well. It can also search in the reverse too, so English/German/Russian/French-Japanese.

2. Who would be the primary user of Jisho?
   Jisho is primarily intended for people who are interested in Japanese culture (video games, manga, anime, etc..) and language learners as they would have the most obvious benefit from a program like Jisho.

3. How can your users benefit from using Jisho?
   The immediate benefit that I see, and this is from my own experience, is I am more willing to look any and every word I see or hear that I don’t understand. Especially with it’s integration with OS X I can look up words by just selecting it and pressing a key command. I can’t count the number of words I have learned because of ease and speed of looking up words.

4. What was your motivation to write Jisho?
   I originally wrote Jisho before getting into university as I knew I was going to study Japanese and would need a dictionary. Since I found it quite useful I thought others might as well so I decided to release it publicly.
5. How much time would you say you have invested in the programming of Jisho?
   Oh I don’t even have a clue. A lot of time. Hundreds of hours at least.

6. Jisho has undergone many changes since its conception. Can you describe some of these and explain how the changes you have done make Jisho a better program?
   Jisho started out as a confused mess I think. The major changes is the adherence to Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, and adopting some Apple technologies that allowed me to completely redesign the interface in literally a few hours and still have a fully functioning application. I actually got a post on the Sugoi Soft blog that demonstrates the differences at http://www.sugoisoft.com/blog/2007/10/02/how-far-jisho-has-come
7. Even though this is the latest release of Jisho, I know myself as a developer I am always focusing on future changes. What changes does the future have in store for Jisho?
   The future for Jisho is going to be expanding to more dictionaries to make it even more comprehensive. I also want to integrate Jisho more with the system and their life better. I’ve been toying around with making Jisho play well with the iPod and other juicy stuff like that.
8. Where/how did you learn how to program?
   I learned to program by mostly teaching myself. I did take some classes at the local community college back when I was a freshman in high school, but that was more basics and data structures.
9. What has been the best part of developing Jisho?
   The best part of developing Jisho has been knowing that I make a product that people are passionate about. That my work can help improve people’s lives is still incredible to me. Of course the monthly checks are pretty good thing too.

10. What has been the worst part of developing Jisho?
    The worst part of developing Jisho has been the dealing with criticism of Jisho. Especially after the 1.0 release of Jisho as it was my first time to take such criticism of something I had poured so many nights and weekends into. It felt like a direct criticism to myself. Overtime though I have learned to extract the valid points and steal their good ideas to future incorporation.



11. How often do you use Jisho yourself?
    I use Jisho everyday, many many times day.
12. Do you have any plans to release a version of Jisho for platforms other than Mac OS X?
    I’ve thought about it, I’ve even gotten a few requests for Windows versions, but I feel my energy would be better spend on making great software for the Macintosh.
13. How did you come up with the name Jisho?
    I wanted a name for Jisho that was different. Something that encapsulated what Jisho does in a word. Something like Dictionary is boring (and already taken). Luckily for me though foreign languages are rife of words that we don’t use in English. Thus I picked Jisho, which is Japanese for dictionary.
14. Do you have any comments you would like to share with the readers of Tenacious Creations?
    

    Yea, thanks for taking the time to read the interview and if you use a mac give Jisho a whirl. If you decide to buy, input the coupon TCTHANKS and receive 10% off Jisho through Sunday.

 If you run a mac I highly recommend that you give Jisho a whirl as the developer suggests. James Van Dyne is the man behind Sugio Soft and Jisho and I would like to thank him for his time for this interview and the discount he is giving to Tenacious Creations readers.

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 Let me start this post with a little true anecdote from my past. The year was 1998 and I was in the military, most of our computers were still running Windows 95. Every year as a junior or senior NCO you are required to write personnel evaluation reports (PER’s) and in ‘98 we were supposed to write them with a piece of software from People-Soft.

 Now PER time was dreaded by most people who had to write them as they have to follow a strict format and it is very time consuming. Frustrations run high. While sitting at my computer I heard banging and cursing coming from the office next to me. It seems a certain Master Corporal was having major problems with his computer. So I went other to offer some assistance. He looked at me and innocently said “Where the fsck is the “any” key?”. Well truth be known I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious. After some difficulty explaining to him that he could hit any to key to continue not just the “any” key he was on his way.

 So what does this have to do with creativity and programming? Well as programmers, bloggers, website developers, and even graphic artists we must always remember to keep the end user or our audience in mind. Coders tend to like to build these awesome applications with all these super fancy additions and features, that to a coder seem awesome (take EMACS for example). However to an end user this can be very intimidating. Computer and technology savvy people tend to ignore this.

 The average computer user just wants the computer to work for them and do what they want it, that is it. They don’t care if their editor / word processor can tell them the tides or psychoanalyze them. They just want to be able to create their document with no hassles. They average computer users seems to be always afraid that something they can do will destroy their computer and they will lose everything.

 These are the people who make up the greater part of your market share. make sure you think about them when you design your new software, website, or ad campaign. If your application requires a lot of data input from the user, like say a word processor, make sure it automatically saves the data at timed intervals. Your users won’t remember to keep saving after they have made changes. If your website is highly graphical and all your links are graphics make sure these are easily distinguishable for your users. If you are writing a blog post about technology for the average person be careful with the terms and acronyms you use. For example most tech savvy people know what WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) means. But to an average user a statement like “Use a WYSIWYG Editor.” Translates to “Use the editor called WYSIWYG.”

Think of the users of your software, the readers of your website, the viewers of your graphics as customers. You want to make the customer/user as comfortable as you can and provide what they need with out confusing them. Remember they do not need to know how the machine operates to use it (not that it wouldn’t help immensely if they did know how it works). Look at the automobile, you don’t need to know how an automatic transmission works, in order to drive one.

 Remember the KISS principle – Keep it Simple, Stupid. The software that gets the most use is simple to operate, a web browser for example or even windows. A person new to digital photography who opens up Photoshop is going to be overwhelmed with the myriad of options and tools. They might just want to fix red eye, they have no need of layer mask, filters etc.. Just look at software the comes with an entry level digital camera its always very simplistic.

 In short remember the any key syndrome.

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 I recently came across this blog post and it got me to thinking how true it is. The author of this original post did a great job bought I thought I could add and expand on a few points. I would urge you to read the original post.

1. Share Everything – Open source is a good thing, and it can help a coder immensely. If you get stuck somewhere along the way it is always nice to be able to look at some one else’s source code and gain ideas from it. But it is just bad karma to always be taking and never giving anything back. Get involved with an open source project, devote what time you can afford. There are huge benefits for you. You get established programmers to review your code, you get to participate in other facets of a project that wouldn’t normally get too. It looks good on a resume and gets your name out there.
2. Play Fair – Give other ideas a chance, your way is not the only way! I hate to tell you this, but it also may not be the best way either. In the same manner the other way may not be the best, but a combination of the two might just be exactly what you are looking for. Do not forget to give credit where credit is due. In my eyes and in many others eyes, I think more of the guy who gives the proper credit than the guy who says it was all him. These people who steal and claim the credit themselves are always found out. It is just a matter of time.
3. Do not hit people! — Don’t go on the war path just because some one is programming in visual basic, or using what you consider an inferior operating system. They still may have some thing to contribute. There are many things you can learn from some one doing something different than you, if you take the time to stop beating them and just listen. Who knows you just may end up as their mentor. Let me tell you, being a mentor is a good thing and you get an even greater sense of accomplishment when your protégé surpasses you.
4. Clean up your own mess – Before you take a look around at your desk and get scared because you realize you cannot see your desk this is only part of it. Believe it or not an organized work space does help more than one thinks in getting things done. Now before you say well all the coders I see have stuff piled everywhere (I am included in this portion of coders). Just because there are piles of things does not mean I am not organized. I truthfully am and know what is in those piles, when it gets to a point where I don’t know what is in those piles then its time for an office restructuring. I used to do this about once a month, now however I do it once a week as that way I a more organized and efficient.
    This also applies to your code however. Strive to keep your source code neat and following some sort of flow. Add comments, even if you are the only one who will ever see this code. Trust me years later when you look at it you’ll have no idea of your thought process unless you took the few seconds to add comments. How do I know this? Well in a lot of code I wrote when first starting I didn’t use comments at all, looking back on it now what I once thought of as elegant code is a mess of spaghetti.
5. Don’t take things that are not yours – Follow the GNU license or the other licenses that are attached to the code you are using. How can you expect some one else to pay for that nifty application your poured your heart in soul into if you don’t pay for the software that others put their heart and soul into? You have more than likely heard the saying “What goes around, comes around.”, well guess what it is absolutely true. Again give credit where credit is due. For example the idea for this post came from this blogs post.
6. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody – Reviewing someones code is a great idea. It helps you by allowing you to see new approaches, and it helps the codes author. But this can be tricky, don’t let your ego get in the way. Use constructive criticism, don’t just point out the flaws, give suggestions on how to fix them. Before you say something negative, take a step back and think about how you’d respond to the comment. That should at least allow you to craft you statement in a productive way and not a purely negative way. However be careful not to coddle the author and don’t just give out the answers. A good mentor knows when to show the answer and when to just point the direction of the answer. If you don’t know the answer, admit it and then you and your protégé can go about finding the answer.
7. Wash your hands before you eat – Remember the 7 P’s to success. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Plan out your project, prototype it, research it on the web, talk to people about, get a good perspective on it. make a flow chart or pseudocode. And if my grade 11 computer science teacher is reading this – “No I still stand behind the fact that you do not need to flow chart a simple PASCAL black jack program that does not even use suits.” (yes I am still bitter about that even though it was more than a decade ago)
8. Flush – Like it says in the post I got the inspiration from. Do not be afraid to replace, refactor, or rewrite something that is crap. Now this is harder than it sounds, it can be very difficult to give up on something that you have worked hard on. But deep down you know when something you have done is crap, you have to admit to yourself that it is crap and have the guts to ditch it.

 

 

9. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you – You need to have a good work environment. If you work from home make sure your office is a distraction free zone, print up a sign or something to hang on your door to warn other house hold members that you are coding and should be left alone. Make sure you like the space you work in. hang pictures of things you like if you are into that. Maybe include a plant (Unless you are in some gloomy dungeon where no light can get in). Try to be in a place where some natural light can be seen. I used to love to work in absolute darkness but I have learned I am actually more productive if some natural sunlight or moon light can get in (contrary to my own beliefs I might add). Try to use an incandescent light in a lamp and point it at the ceiling. This diffuses the light a bit and makes it easier on the eyes.
10. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. – This is probably the most important advice I can give. Working 24 hours a day IS NOT good for you and hampers your creativity. Googles program is to allow its employees to spend 20% of their time at work devoted to whatever they think they should be working on. You need to have other outlets that gets you away from the code, draw, skate board, build a battle bot, finger paint, or just bake cookies. You’ll be amazed at how rejuvenated your mind will be after a short break. Solutions you were struggling with will just seem to come to you. In fact when you get really stumped – take a break away from the computer and go for a walk. It really does help.
11. Take a nap every afternoon – I have a kitchen timer stuck to my filing cabinet next to my work station set with a 20 minute count down timer. When it goes off, I take a two minute break. I get up and stretch, close and rub my eyes. You might see it as a wasted two minutes but man has it increased my productivity. Now I’ll admit sometimes I am involved in something and can’t take that little break. In that case I reset the timer and try to take a break before it goes off. But after it goes off the second time I make myself take a break. If I am in the middle of an idea I write it down in my note pad. At first I was afraid I would lose my train of thought. But in reality it allows to me to focus more precisely on that train of thought. My reasoning behind this is as such – Your subconscious brain processes way more information and way faster than your conscious brain and a sort of lag develops. When you take that break it allows for your conscious brain to catch up. That ca also explain why I seem to be able to solve things while I nap or sleep.
12. Be Positive – This is the chant of many self help guru but it really does have an effect. You have to strive to be the glass is half full person and not the glass is half empty person. Being positive takes a lot more work than being negative, and you have to always watch yourself to make sure you are not sliding to the negative side. Once you start approaching problems positively you’ll find the solutions come a lot easier. Instead of thinking ” Crap another bug this sucks!”. Try and approach it by thinking ” Hmm another bug, lets find and see how I can make this code a work of art!”. As goofy and new age as this might sound it does do wonders.

  The author of the post where I got my inspiration has a few more points listed but this covers pretty much what I wanted to say. I really hope you enjoyed this post and possibly came away with something that can benefit you from it.

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