Nothing ever works perfectly when you’re dealing with web design and development. Technology can change and shift right underneath you once you think you have everything locked down. Operating systems adjust. Rules of digital engagement morph on different web browsing platforms. Everything is in constant flux.
And you can pull your hair out and give up, or you can learn to deal with crashes. And things will crash, a lot, for you, and for your clients, and the people that require your services. So, have a few techniques on hand for minimizing the damage that comes from these crashes, and learn some things in the process.
Blog Posts About Solving Known Issues
If you have content up during your development process, then there’s nothing wrong with having a section or even just individual posts about known crash issues. Having this information available is good for trust, good for feedback purposes from clients, and is even good for SEO, as the use of language will suggest to the Google algorithm that your site is an expert authority in the field. Use crash reports in blog posts effectively, and there are nothing but benefits.
Automatic Crash Diagnostics
How often does it happen that while you’re using a program, everything goes blank, the screen sketches out, and warning messages with a lot of crazy looking numbers and phrases show up, and a message underneath says “automatically send crash report diagnostics?” If possible, choose yes! And as a developer, if there’s any way for crash reports to be sent directly to you as an admin, see if you can set that automation up.
Saving and Backing Up In the Cloud
If your work isn’t in three places, it’s nowhere. That’s the maxim when it comes to backing up your work. So, if you’re working on a website as a developer, have it on your local hard drive, saved on a cloud drive, and on a separate archival media somewhere. That simple step can save potentially thousands of hours of work that might otherwise be lost with something as common as a power failure.
Keeping Apps and Software Updated
One major cause of crashes is incompatibility between applications, operating systems, types of hard drives, and even types of browsers. Crashes happen one time and then may not happen another time. But, if you constantly keep updated with everything you can, you’ll have a much lower crash rate overall.
Making Small Feedback Loops
During the development process, if you allow beta testers to really work through all of the options your site presents, and allow them to give you feedback as quickly as they run into issues, you can potentially iron out crash issues at an exponentially faster rate. Don’t be scared to make mistakes, and then just fix them as quickly as possible.