Consulting 101: Don't be retarded. [A look at crappy web design]
Sep 03 '00
About 2 years ago I decided I didn't want to go to work one day. When you work for a large company, you're nothing more than a number. Expendable. This just doesn't sit well with me, so I elected to start a trend. Not only would I not be on time at my desk today, but every day from this day forward. In other words, I quit.
The job I'm referring to was a Network Engineer position with IBM, which in my opinion stands for "I've Been Mislead". Everyone always told me what a great company IBM was to work for. Of course this came from people who never worked for the company. In fact most of the people who gave me this information didn't even sustain careers in any computer field. How foolish of me to listen.
Now I hadn't really thought this whole quitting thing out very well, it was a spontaneous decision. That created obstacles in itself, namely cash flow. Sure, I had a couple of bucks in the bank and I could live off of that for 2 or 3 months, but eventually I knew that would run out.
What to do? The same thing everyone else does who is suddenly without work. I gave myself the "Consultant" label. All of you "consultants" out there know what I'm talking about. It's just another word for "Unemployed".
My first task as a consultant was to find something to do. Sticking with tradition, I decided to be a sheep and do what other consultants do - proclaim myself a web designer. "Hey, what a great idea!" I thought. I enjoyed expressing creativity in the form of computer graphics, right?
I took a different approach than most. My motto was "The customer is usually wrong". When a customer would explain a product or service they wanted to offer over the web, the "uninformed" customers had certain demands and a way they wanted the site to look. An "uninformed" customer is someone who doesn't understand what makes a web page "suck".
Things like bright background images that make the text difficult to read, flashing/scrolling text, "lots of Java" (believe it or not, many customers would actually say "I want lots of Java"), too much text, too many colored buttons for links, too many links to other sites on the web, plagiarism, a little icon of a mailbox as an "E-Mail me" link, etc.
You've all seen bad web pages. Maybe you've designed a few. But the point is, when a customer would request things like that on a website, I would suggest an alternative to make the site both more attractive to the viewer, and more compatible with the wide variety of web browsers out there. Yes there is more to life than Internet Explorer and Netscape. When a customer was stuck on their own sucky design ideas, I would refuse to do the work. I refuse to attach my name to something I'm not proud of.
Now while I'm on that subject let me take this another direction for a second.. "attaching my name" doesn't mean I put "page designed by Ron" on everything I design. That's tacky! You self-proclaimed web designers out there need to stop doing that! If a customer pays you to design a site, it's their site - it's not for you to showcase your design skills. Your own site should be all the convincing they need.
Anyway, what I meant by 'attaching my name' was if someone were to ask that client "who designed your website?" they would say my name. I don't want that association. Take your business elsewhere.
How to fix the problem
Follow these simple steps and you'll be among the greats.
1) Keep it simple. Graphics should DECORATE, not DOMINATE. A web site should give a visitor/potential customer the information they need, and allow you to make your sales pitch. If you're selling widgets, a customer is there because they're looking for widgets. They're not going to be impressed by your web design skills, and your ability to integrate 500 Java applets on a single page.
2) Keep it compatible. This is the most common mistake web designers make. Just because YOUR screen resolution is 1024x768 doesn't mean everyone else's is, and it doesn't mean they're going to switch their resolution just to look at YOUR site. In fact, they'll most likely surf elsewhere. Would you turn away a customer because they're wearing a different color shirt than you? Of course not. So why would you turn away someone who prefers 640x480 resolution?
My father is a great example of this - he does a lot of online shopping, he always has the lastest version of Internet Explorer, but he doesn't have the best vision. He keeps his screen resolution at 640x480; not because he doesn't know how to switch it, but because it's easier for him to see.
If you look at sites like Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay, etc. all of their pages look great in 640x480. Remember, these guys spent a ton of money on market research before they designed their sites - be smart and benefit from their research.
There is one, and only one exception to compatibility - browser versions. Don't worry about making your site compatible with 2.0 browsers. If someone is still using a 2.0 browser, chances are they're not buying anything on the web anyway. So don't feel like you can't be creative because you want to please everyone. The majority of web buyers are using 4.0 browsers.
3) Mis-using the Meta Tags. There's a common misconception among web site owners that more hits = more sales. This is only partially true. The WRONG traffic will generate NO sales. If you're selling computers, don't put "real estate" in your meta tags. All you're going to do is annoy people when they're searching for something specific, and YOUR web site - which has nothing to do with what they're looking for - keeps coming up in the searches.
4) Presentation is Everything! Like it or not, the appearance of your web site reflects upon your business. Just because your neighbor's 8 year old kid knows how to use FrontPage doesn't necessarily mean he's qualified to design a professional looking site. Typically, you get what you pay for when it comes to web design. Most of your low-cost web design companies are one-man operations and work full time jobs during the day. That makes your web site a second priority, and it makes the designer difficult to reach when you need him. My best advice is to find a site you like and, without plagarizing, base your site's layout upon it.
5) The value of a domain name. As I mentioned above, presentation is everything. This includes having a real domain name. You can get your own .com for as little as $10 per year. My company gives them away. So forget the $70 quote your web designer gave you. No matter what anyone says, www.mycompany.com looks better than www.freewebpages.com/gilligan/theskippertoo/this/that/mypage.htm.
6) Be honest. Don't promise the Titanic and deliver the SS Minow. Don't boast your site receives millions of hits per day, when it actually received 4 hits yesterday and 3 of them were you. You might make a sale or two, but word of mouth can make you or break you. And remember, it's a lot easier for an Internet customer to charge back a purchase if they feel they were mislead.
7) Don't run banner ads on your site. If you're selling a product, the worst thing you can do is send people AWAY from your site. Plus, it cheapens your site's look and feel. When you're getting several thousand hits per day, go for it. Make some money selling ad space. But until that happens, it's tacky.
8) Don't be 'under construction'. If part of your site isn't ready, keep your mouth shut about it. It's better to surprise people with something new, than make them expect something you haven't finished yet. Don't even mention an upcoming feature of your site that isn't ready yet. The exception to this rule is if it's something people continue to ask for - in which case, make a little comment somewhere on your site that reads "NOTE: Due to popular request, a new feature is in development. [product name] will soon be available. Check back on [project finished date] to see it in action!"
9) Don't hide! Let people contact you easily
That's it folks. How to make your site not suck :)
If you need more convincing, look at my company's site, www.visionmultimedia.net. I'm not going to say it's the best site on the Internet. But it's effective. From the beginning, it's made clear to the customer what their options are and where to get help if they need it. We have a ton of new projects in the works, but you don't see any "under construction" pages, do you? :)
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions, my mailbox is always open.
*Ron
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Epinions.com ID:
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Member: Ron Rule
Location: Tampa Bay, FL
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
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