It’s the most frustrating time of the year
With our focus on scaling
And everyone telling “There’s nothing to fear;
Our site must look fine on all sorts of gear.”
It’s the most frustrating time of them all
The users are clueless, the stakeholders useless
Our budget is small
It’s the most frustrating time of them all.
There’ll be pages displaying
On iPad and Surface
On desktop and even on phones
They’ll receive taps and clicks
Work on IE 10 and on 6!
Both browsers we cannot condone.
It’s the most frustrating time of the year
There’s been much remote testing
With ‘helpful’ suggesting
As deadlines draw near
It’s the most frustrating time of the year.
As I break down in tears
My head suddenly clears
I know where this site needs to go
I’ll get rid of the pictures
And all of the strictures
Of responsive design and workflow.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
Our text-only site’s live
And, indeed, it’s responsive
So I’m out of here!
It’s the most wonderful time
It’s the most wonderful time
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. 
Peter has been actively involved in Web design and development since 1993, working in the defense and telecommunications industries; designing a number of interactive, Web-based systems; and advising on usability. He has also worked in education, in both industry and academia, designing and delivering both classroom-based and online training. Peter is a Director at Edgerton Riley, which provides UX consultancy and research to technology firms. Peter has a PhD in software component reuse and a Bachelors degree in human factors, both from Loughborough University, in Leicestershire, UK. He has presented at international conferences and written about reuse, eLearning, and organizational design. Read More
