The Cool Cam (2007)

When I started out making software for freelance projects I would build everything &quot;important&quot; first (user auth, database requirements, basic UI), and then add the pretty UI at the end.<p>I noticed when showing off a project sans pretty UI I was met with some pretty disappointing responses. Once I switched to adding pretty UI at the beginning of a project the response was the opposite.<p>I guess there&#x27;s something to be said about salesmanship somewhere in there. All I know is that if I kept focusing on what I thought was important first I probably wouldn&#x27;t have been as successful as I was.

I&#x27;ve noticed in computer graphics and games that there are some simple things you can do that go a long way towards making the game &quot;cool&quot;, things like particles for example.<p>I never thought something like this could actually save a dying project, I&#x27;ll keep that in mind!

I am almost ashamed to admit how many times I&#x27;ve reduced hugely complex things to what amounts to a demo on a shiny retina display ipad. The %99 percent of what-actually-solves-the-problem is still there, but most of reaction could be summed up with &quot;oooh, shiny&quot; :-)<p>(maybe a <i>touch</i> of hyperbole in there)

Wow, not the ending I was expecting. I thought the cool cam would show some spectacular failure during the meeting.

Every software project I&#x27;ve ever worked on has a Cool Cam. Hell, most people have a Cool Cam.