SMS Bamboozlement...

I'm doing some work for a client at the moment who's industry is particularly technophobic. The absolute cutting edge is a bit of YouTube video thrown willy nilly into a page. I'd also point out that design is something that rarely makes an appearance in this particular industry.

So it was pretty refreshing when we went to them with a series of ideas from the more commercial sectors of New Media and one of the things they latched onto was SMS. Queue annoyance though when we had already got everything ready to go other than to push the big green "launch" button and another company got involved and started talking about location aware services and high end data capture etc.

At this point the client dissolved into a mess of indecision - "Why weren't we doing all of this?" was the question, to which the answer was "Because you don't need to - primarily because your text messaging service is built around raising revenue through donations!"

I've had this happen in the past, notably with SEO companies. I do pity the poor clients who get stuck in these situations where they've finally decided to push their technology base along but then get waylaid by all the glittery, flashing and hypnotic LEDs.

At the end of the day it is important to remember why you are doing something and not get sidetracked (and not get ripped off). Once a strong foundation of technology is laid there is always something new you can build - you don't have to have every shiny present under the tree to have a great christmas.