The big day comes, and the client is ushered in to the boardroom to see the fruits of your labor. The door is shut, the blinds drawn, the lights switched off. On comes the projector, and there on the wall is displayed your creation. Your vision. Your baby. You give the full demonstration. You point out all the features and functions. You deliver the grand tour.

Half an hour later the software demonstration comes to an end. Your face beams with pleasure and anticipation. Surely the client will be excited, thrilled, glowing with pleasure. Perhaps clapping their hands with delight, or even cheering! The client may write a letter of commendation to the company about your superb work. The boss will surely give you a hearty slap on the back and maybe even a pay rise.

On come the lights and you turn to receive your accolades, ready to graciously accept the praise and admiration of everyone in the room. But wait…there's something wrong. Very wrong. Blank faces. Bored expressions. The guy at the back is finishing off a yawn. The woman at the front appears to be shaking herself out of a short nap. That dork from the client's marketing department is doodling on a notepad. The head guy from the client says, "Err, thanks Andrew. Thanks very much. It seems to do the job adequately."

Adequately? Argh! What's happened? What's gone wrong? Why aren't they jumping for joy? Why can't they see how cool this software is? Why don't they appreciate the power, the features, the functions?

The truth is that you've just discovered one of the more disturbing aspects of the commercial software development business. They weren't impressed because your software didn't look cool.

Your user interface was plain old HTML. You didn't get time to pretty it up. The client wasn't paying for cool-factor, they were paying for functionality.