Sunny Walker's Blog

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March 11, 2003

Web Site Design

Why is it that I don't update this very often? Simple. It's a pain in the ass. :) And why is that? Because I haven't automated this blogging system yet. If I made it easier for me to update this site, then I'd update it more often. (I think.)

This brings me to a very important point to web design. It is crucial that a site be "easy" for the administrator just as much as it should be easy for the visitor. Much of my business now is developing custom web sites for people that are fully self-sufficient. That is, once the site is turned over to the customer, they have nearly full control over it and no longer need me.

Where's the love in that, you may ask? It comes in the satisfaction of a job well done. Having been on both sides of the proverbial fence, there is so much more satisfaction in getting 1 call a quarter versus 3 calls a week for assistance/updates to a particular web site. Peace of mind for both me and the customer is worth much more than the business of being on-call.

When you empower a web site manager with the tools/knowledge/ability to manage their site whenever and however they want to, you're making everyone's life easier and more fulfilled.

Of course, building a site to reach such standards requires a tremendous amount of extra work. And worst of all, it involves making decisions up front. To build a self-sufficient site, the customer has to decide on what they want their site to do--up front. While a seemingly simple task, attaining such a point is nigh impossible. People who require outside help with building a web site invariably don't know what they want. This is mostly due to simple ignorance, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

People don't know what the web is really capable of and what its limitations are. They don't know what you can do for them, and they don't have the experience that you have, as a web site designer. For example, they may not realize that to have a login system with passwords and such, there needs to be an underlying database-type system which can verify user input based on existing data and intelligently proceed according to the results. This means a logic system is also needed and therefore some sort of scripting is required of the server host. This is most likely way beyond the capacity and consideration of the customer, so it's your job to inform them of these requirements and talk them through options and such when consulting on a new project.

Anyway, before my train of thought derails even further, the point is that a great self-sufficient site will make life easier on the customer and designer as long as it is done right the first time. It's worth it. Really.

Posted at March 11, 2003 10:22 AM |

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