Database Design

Having done programming, design and e-commerce stuff; I must say one of my favorite things to do when starting a new business is designing the database. I am by no means a DBA but for some odd reason, my artistic mind likes figuring out the linking structure and design complex databases that would rival some designs from real DBA's. It's really a shame my talents are spread out all over the place and not focused on any one useful vertical.

So last week I was able to turn what should have been a simple web project with three to four tables in the DB to some rather complex design with about 15-20 tables. I really don't know why I needed that many but that's what we ended up having once I decided I wanted to track everything that happens on this website.

For now, the design is set. However I still have to talk to the car dealers to see what would make their lives easier; not what would make my life easier. One mistake that most programmers make is that they design a new sites or applications with 1000 cool features only to find out that the features are way above and beyond what their target audience needs and the over blown product is left sitting there collecting dust. I would say the Yahoo! Search Marketing interface as well as Microsoft AdCenter are great examples of this. I cringe every time I have to login and use those things... but again; I'm veering off.

So now that the DB is done (at least for now), time to move on to the site design.