Are You a Web Designer?

It seems our industry is in the middle of a conundrum as to what one should call themselves when asked the pivotal question of “what does your company do?” The easiest, most laymenesque answer is “web designer” and for 99% of the U.S. population you would get a nod of understanding. Now to the more experienced audience this term seems very arbitrary. Does that mean you design only? Do you program applications? Do you offer marketing? (Fill in Blank of any other website related profession/service) etc., etc., etc. If you sell cars, you are car dealer? If you sell landscaping services, you are a landscaping company. It just seems like it should be so simple. To the point of this blog lets just take a gander at the various names circling the industry and what they could possibly mean just for fun’s sake.

Web Designer - This term would typically reference an individual, perhaps a freelancer. In most cases this person wouldn’t just “design only”, rather possess some basic HTML skills so they could actually put together an entire basic website. Anyone that actually does only design would probably refer to themselves as a Graphic Designer.

Webmaster - This term is a bit outdated, but there still is a high demand for it. A Webmaster is simply the person you call to keep your website up to date, fix, etc. Basically a Webmaster is hired to let the world know that the entity behind the site is still breathing. In most cases the Webmaster is the Web Designer who built the site to begin with. Now do you see how this works?

Web Developer(ment) - This term would insinuate that the company/individual has some application programming abilities in the form of PHP, .NET, Java, or God forbid some other type of painful, archaic language. Skill can very extensively, but nonetheless you should at least get these guys to build you a “hello world” application.

Interactive Agency - An Interactive Agency (at least a real one) is typically going to be your high end, full-on, online marketing campaign company. They typically use various forms of media and promotional techniques to turn a website into a marketing juggernaut, of course, that is if they are good.

Web Agency - A Web Agency is a company that has progressed by truly combining the graphic design, web designer and web developer skill sets and can internally produce anything that can be done specifically for the web. While this type of company may specialize in other services such as Internet marketing, they have their roots in traditional web development.

In my last blog I discussed the differences of various types of web companies that exist in today’s market. One key factor in the overall cost of a website is the utilization of the team environment versus individuals simply working on a project. Operating a team at an efficient level of production for a web development project is simply not a task for the feint of heart. I will be the first to admit that any single individual can technically be more efficient than a team, however that does not directly correlate to more output and/or a better product. Ultimately, if the team is managed effectively it CAN be more efficient. With some companies, especially low cost ones, the only team aspect you are getting is an assembly line style production performed by individuals. Regardless of the industry, assembly lines are geared for one single purpose; to produce a large volume of the EXACT same product. If you are into custom cars or have ever had the pleasure to watch “Pimp My Ride” on MTV, you will notice that they always consist of teams working towards a single vision and common goal of producing a completely custom product. Each team member contributes to this vision with their own area of expertise. So what unique aspects do you get from a team when building a website?

1. Ideas - The world is full of “ideas” people. While some are more creative than others, the true creative individual doesn’t just spawn creative thinking in their sleep. They gain inspiration from their environment and more importantly other individuals dedicated to a common purpose and goal. Each team member brings their unique expertise and experiences to the table to come up with GREAT solutions that most people could not accomplish as individuals.

2. Thoroughness - The larger the project, the harder it is to collectively think of all of the ins and outs that go into its creation. It would take one heck of a person to single handedly think of the thousands of elements that go into a large scale project, and the odds are that they will miss something in the end. With a team, similar to ideas, you get each individual’s strengths to contribute to making sure every point is covered. Some team members are user interface experts, while others are great at testing, and more. There are so many more proficiencies in the web industry beyond just designing and developing. Furthermore individuals that are simply great at everything are extremely rare or are extremely full of it.

3. Productivity - An individual, working as an individual, must be extremely self-motivated and/or have some strict guidelines to work within. It is easy to distract an individual and likewise if that individual has other responsibilities you would be hard pressed to ever gain that their 100% attention. I have seen websites produced by individuals take months with mediocre results and I have seen teams do the same amount of work within days and produce stellar results. Teams motivate and feed off of each other. There is no greater motivator than competition and no one wants to be dragging the rear.

All of the benefits of a team producing a website are consistent with the same elements of a great sports team or a military unit. When it comes to a web design company you might pay a little extra for a true team, but the odds are the results will be faster, better, and more inline with your end goal than the luck of a draw of choosing than the alternative. Is lifeBLUE a team? You bet we are!

Not to long from now 4G wireless coverage is going to change how the mobile device world works. No longer will high speed internet be relegated to a 100 yard radius around your home. It will extend out beyond your home, office, and internet cafe into every corner of whatever major city you live in.

Things are going to change.

Things are going to change a lot.

As the internet world truly integrates with the mobile world, internet marketing will change drastically. Gone are the days where gaudy banner ads are the way to go. Those lovely little text ads will change forever.  Our social media outlets will no longer be tied to a desk. To reach the masses, creativity will be required.

Typically, the strongest part of any marketing campaign has been the “art” side of creative marketing.  That is also changing.  While graphic art is and always will be just as important to any marketing endeavor, the user interface has now risen to meet it in importance.  Here are a few reasons why.

Technology is no longer a spectator sport.

People want to interact with things on a tactile level.  Even with television, which is largely a spectator oriented technology, people gravitate to the content they can interact with.  Shows such as “Dancing With The Stars”, “American Idol”, and others have proven this for years now.  People like to contribute to their entertainment.

In the web world the sites that are used the most are sites that involve two things.  First a simple, usable interface that lets users do what they want without reading a manual.  Second, visitors can put their two cents in.  This is why Facebook has taken the world by storm.  People can use it without a Masters degree in computer science and it’s all about them.

People want to know and they want to know now.

People know that information is out there and they want it quickly and in a simple way. If you don’t provide that they will find it elsewhere. There are so many sites out there that do the same thing and 90% of the time the most successful site has three basic elements: clean design, relevant information, and most importantly it’s fun to use.  The site that does these three things (plus some good marketing) has the best chance to be a success.

Brand is no longer just about a logo.

Brand loyalty is now built by usability as well as visual appeal.   Take Google, they don’t have the greatest logo, a stunning visual design, or little pretties everywhere.  In fact, they do quite the opposite.  There is one woman who has been there since nearly the beginning who’s job it is to ensure that the user interface remains clean.  She is paid huge sums of cash to tell the designers to keep it simple.  People love Google not because it has a “WOW Wee” design, but because it is easy to use.

None of this negates good design.  In fact, it helps define it.  Good web design is defined by how the user will react AND interact with it.  If a design is good looking and hard to use, it is still bad design.  If a design is both then magic happens.

Now that the web is everywhere, user interface is everything.  Design, development, and implementation of a marketing campaign deeply depends on how a user feels about using that marketing.  It’s a good day for the internet because the user is finally the primary consideration.

Power to the users!

When it comes to web design pricing I have long known there is some mystery to it. It’s not uncommon to find ads and offshore companies plugging $199 for a five page website to top brand agencies, only to hear later there is a “it costs $5,000 to even talk to us” retainer. Clearly it’s anyone’s guess as to how much it should cost to build a website, or is it? What goes into putting up a website? How much work does it take? Do they charge hourly or by the page or maybe even by the cheesy stock photography image? The fact is that there are many ways that companies sort out the pricing of a site project, and while some companies are on the up and up, some merely just shoot the moon. I think the age old motto still applies, “You get what you pay for!” Ultimately, the industry is diverse enough where there are a million different ways to categorize each company and likewise their pricing mechanisms. I can’t write that long and it’s almost my bed time, but I have done my due diligence to provide some insight to a few of the major categories that most web providers can call their own.

For $500 or less you too can have your very own personalized website. That is of course as long as you don’t mind there being 1.2 million others just like yours, albeit maybe with a few color variations. These types of offers basically have a few catches:

1. You have little to no say in the aesthetics of your site.
2. While you may not get charged a staggering amount for extras, these deals are for bare bones. It is essentially the car with no air conditioning.
3. I leave it to personal opinion as to whether this is a good thing or bad thing, but the odds are extremely high that the work is being outsourced.

The positive side of these providers is you get to have a billboard for your business for a relatively small expense. This is great for start-ups, small businesses and local business. It accomplishes just getting some basic information on the web and likewise gives people a fair chance at finding out who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. If you are trying to receive and/or market to a national audience this type of website will stand to hurt before it helps. Essentially, if you are driving traffic to your site that would otherwise never have heard of your business, it is essential to make a first impression that sticks.

The next main category is the “custom” web designer. Many companies attempt to exploit the word “custom” and essentially the word itself means little in regard to the context of the company that uses this moniker. At a minimum, a “custom” website should never mimic either the designer’s portfolio or any other website on the web for that matter. A custom design takes good and bad aspects of existing design trends and combines them with the client’s wants, needs, and objectives. Now what comes out on the other end depends on any number of potential factors from the company and/or designer’s artistic interpretation to the client’s desire to micromanage the process. As stated there are many companies out there that coin themselves “custom web designers.” To separate the gold from the dirt you have to consider one or all of several factors.

1. What is the process they use to get the final product? What kind of information do they gather? Do they do interviews, questionnaires, or a combination of both?
2.  Do all of the websites in their portfolio look the same? Did they actually do the designs in the portfolio or just update some text on the page at one point?
3. If needed, how is the revisions process handled?

All of the answers to these questions play into the final product you will eventually pay for. A good solid process backed with a company that has the skills to produce a truly unique web experience is going to cost more, but likewise it is the difference in separating your online presence from others. While a site my not always convert the masses that are only there to seek its beauty, a quality designed website creates an online branding and PR campaign not equally matched by alternative means. Pricing in this genre can really run the gamut. If a company is charging on the low end in this particular sector, there is usually a catch. Either they are a $499 web company in disguise or you are not getting the benefit of a process or team of skilled professionals behind the effort. If the price is on the high end, then it is important to make sure they have the portfolio and case studies to back it up.

The next and final iteration of a web industry sector is the full blown Interactive Agency. If the agency truly is representative of its place in this realm, this isn’t for the faint of heart, or pocket for that matter. There are very, very few agencies that are worthy of this categorization. With a true interactive agency a web site is no longer a project but a multi-faceted marketing campaign combined with print, social, branding, and traditional marketing elements. To get the most out of the cost of this type of company your place in the market share is now about brand awareness rather than traffic and conversions. You want the target audience to see and know you are there and the web is only a small part of this overall vision. Costs are a minimum of six figures if not seven and chances are about 99.9% your average five year old can name the companies that use a true Interactive Agency.

To make the best decision it is important to understand there is a return on investment through a carefully thought out combination of quality and budget. In the end with true Interactive Agencies aside, you are paying for quality, expertise, and current disposition regardless of their “marketing position”. A volume based company cannot truly fit in to the custom web design industry and an Interactive Agency can’t meet the pricing demands below that of a Fortune 500 company. In today’s web world you have traditional marketing companies experimenting with web, design firms pretending to be development firms, development companies pretending to be design firms, hosting companies offering websites, IT consulting and more, all trying to get their piece of the action. I circle back to the point that there are million of different factors that go in to web design companies and their pricing mechanisms. Any prospective web site client should hopefully understand the relationship between desired quality and budget, the rest is finding a prospective relationship that fits within those two elements.

There is no such thing as a website overnight success. Mystery solved, blog for the week = done! Wait, I forgot to explain why! Let’s set the stage; in my experience in running a business for the past eight years there is no real overnight success in business, and even more so online. Fast growth can only come in one of a very few ways being:

1. A lot of capital.
2. An indescribable amount of man hours.
3. Really good people firing on all cylinders.

Sometimes its a combination, but its never without any of these attributes. The only overnight success in this world comes from gambling, the lottery or stealing, but I’m not taking my chance on beating Vegas, haven’t bought a lottery ticket in years, and likewise don’t feel like going to jail anytime soon. I don’t know where the average Joe stands but that is just me. Your Facebook, Myspace, Google, Amazon, Ebay or any other of the major apparently overnight online successes didn’t get their billion dollars a few days after their conception. Not to mention these ideas were unique at the time and have obliterated the competition for market share.

If you added the man hours of development and sweat equity for these gems of the Internet put together, you could circle the globe eight times. I can’t exactly prove that because the data doesn’t exists, but let me just tell you that none of these sites started out as even a reflection of what they are today. Facebook started as a crude version of Harvard “hot or not”, while Ebay was a cheap site for selling beanie babies (boy I’m glad I didn’t buy one of those) and Google is years worth of mathematical and search technology genius put together. The bottom line is you aren’t going to create a version of these sites and compete with these big dogs within the market place without a great idea and a truckload of benjamins. If you are still reading this and saying, “Duh, everyone knows that,” I will say that’s not quite true. Ok, so there isn’t an overnight success what now? A second part of this myth is that you can make money on the web with little or no investment similar to the California Gold Rush in 1849 that the money is just sitting there waiting for you.

While I will still contend that you can compete for a larger market share with less of a start-up cost of opening up a brick and mortar location, the online marketplace itself has become quite competitive. Simply put, unless you are a developer (or really good friends with one that is a pushover) the fact of the matter is that it’s probably going to take some capital and more than just a good idea to build a successful online enterprise. Driving traffic to your site is the second part of the equation and that takes an aggressive marketing campaign to get the users you need to find your site. The amount of money being put into online advertising year over year is growing by the billions. This means the marketplace is becoming more competitive, and unfortunately, to compete in a competitive market place revert to the three tools listed above.

If I burst anyone’s bubble I apologize. This doesn’t mean its impossible, its simply a matter of uncovering the fact that the web isn’t the haven for no cost, next million dollar ideas, those simply don’t exist anywhere. The web still remains a great place to invest one’s ingenuity, desire, and output of great ideas, this will remain true for long years to come. It just takes more work than the average bear might think to get there.

Many new clients get a project finished and then wonder what the next step is. To get a site from the development environment and into the great World Wide Web requires you to put your site up on a server (which is just a special computer designed to display Web sites). There are lots of different types of hosting accounts to consider, but here are a few.

• Free web hosting service: There are a ton of companies that offer up Free web hosting often with limited services and/or advertisements that you are forced to display on your site.
• Shared web hosting service: This is probably the most common way that people start off in the web hosting world. In shared hosting, one’s website is placed on the same server with many other sites. This could be a few to hundreds or thousands and, often, all domains share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive and it is usually a great place to start when looking for your first hosting service.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: (also known as a Virtual Private Server or VPS) This type of hosting divides the server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. This setup will frequently allocate resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship. The users may have root access to their own virtual space and sometimes customers are responsible for patching and maintaining their server.
• Dedicated hosting service: your site gets its own Web server with full control over it; however, the user usually does not own the server. This setup is typically unmanaged meaning the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated server.
• Managed hosting service: this type of dedicated server means that your site gets its own Web server but you are not allowed full control over it. Usually, you are still allowed to manage your data via FTP or other remote management tools. This is done so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems.
• Colocation web hosting service: this is a very common setup similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the server and the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. Often, the provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server.
• Clustered hosting: Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting since they are when you take a number of servers and connect them together to increase the power of the server. This is usually only reserved for very popular and highly used sites.

So, the best advice is to analyze your site, determine how much traffic it might get and how much control you want over the management of the hardware. Then it should be as easy as just shopping around and doing your homework.

How to identify programmers and cope with their different coding styles.

Everybody has their only personal touch when it comes to pumping out code. Oftentimes the difference is negligible since similar work items are usually delegated to one programmer or department, minimizing the chance that you will ever have to sort through their source since it ‘appears to work’. Having to decipher another person’s code can be time consuming and runs the risk of erroneous implementation of code. Being able to recognize a particular programmer’s style is the first step to successfully utilizing their work for your benefit. Listed below are a number of different programming styles that you are likely to come across in your workplace along with their distinguishing traits.

The Clutter Bug:

More often than not this type of programmer can be identified by looking at their workspace alone. These ‘cluster-coders’ lack organization and are more concerned with results than upholding standards. Clutter Bugs are the product of loosely defined business requirements, poor fundamental programming education (or a personal indifference towards accepted programming methodology), and not enough team experience. The Clutter Bug gets a bad rap, because they often are the most intelligent programmers. Most Clutter Bugs know their code like the back of their hands and given a conflict can resolve it promptly. Other symptoms include inconsistent lunch schedules, late hours, and unkempt hair.

The Dungeon Master:

These programmers assume that others will adopt and follow their programming styles down to which data structures they use. The Dungeon Master is resilient to change and is always ready to defend their work with a lengthy list of reasons why their style is superior to yours. They are quickly irritable when dealing with other persons’ code, and will become quickly lost if too much or too little whitespace is present. Individually they might stand out from the crowd, but when working within a team environment they oftentimes become the nitpicker and inhibit work from getting completed by requiring that all deliverables meet their standards first and not the clients’. Some Dungeon Masters are the product of the Dinosaur mental block (can’t teach an old dog new tricks), but more often than not they are just prideful and have an insurmountable prejudice.

The Spatially Aware:

If there was a beauty pageant for code-writing the Spatially Aware would win every time, however they might fumble when asked how they would use their code to better the project. The primary flaw of the Spatially Aware is that they probably have spent more time organizing their code than writing it. Some of them are tightly bound by the instructions of their first programming teacher while others simply have some form of textual spacing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This type of programmer may make it extremely easy for you to find what you need from their code, but they will struggle immensely with your code if you have not mashed your “tab” button to death. They also tend to waste valuable time making code look presentable even though the client will never touch the source.

The Shape Shifter:

Always looking for a new and improved way to perform the same old trick, the Shape Shifter will solve the same problem three different ways in three different places. Their included files list usually has to be placed within a collapsible tag to keep it from taking up half the page. The hardest part about dealing with a Shape Shifter’s code is learning how their code works or learning the foreign resource they decided to pull in. Other programmers struggle with Shape Shifter code, because it requires them to learn alternative ways of implementing a solution that they are already capable of doing with tried and tested logic. Shape Shifters are usually technical bookworms, random bloggers, and tend to jump into a problem headfirst without analyzing the needs of the project first.

The T-1000:

In the brain/processor of the T-1000, coding standards are expendable. Opening up a T-1000’s code is like opening a Windows Media Video file with notepad. Class and variable names look more like serial codes than descriptive titles, lines of code run together, and commenting is, in the programmer’s opinion, unnecessary. These programmers are living machines and should be watched carefully when working on a team project, especially if you have employees with the last name of “Connor”. If you’re delegating an entire project to a T-1000 rest assured that it will function correctly, but do not expect great documentation. T-1000’s can understand anybody else’s code, but others will struggle to understand the simplest statement of a T-1000 program.

While it is impossible to unite all coders under one programming standard, it is very easy to alleviate several issues that may occur between clashing programmer mentalities by implementing and enforcing rudimentary practices. This can be as simple as defining naming standards, having a logic flow associated with work items (aka use cases), or enforcing good commenting. Below are a number of steps that can assist in tightening the nuts and bolts on your development team:

1. Create a predevelopment process where overall project analysis and design is performed. This includes designing database schema, use cases, naming conventions, and business rules.
2. If your team is large, or your projects expansive enough, you may consider developing a business-specific software development cycle where project workflow can be custom-tailored to your business’s needs and methodology.
3. Getting your developers to discuss their ideas openly in Developer Meetings can help establish what kind of standards are necessary for your workforce, and will also promote constructive technical discussion between programmers.
4. Commenting is a simple and easy way to describe what your code does. This is the only reason commenting exists…so use it!
5. Documentation is painful to compile, but it will save your developers time, your end users even more time, and your customer support department 50% on their phone bill.

In order to get the most out of your developers it is important to recognize the differences and utilize the strengths of your team members. Being able to identify what type of programmers you are working with will save you time, money, and minimize the need for oversight. Taking some of these proposed precautionary steps can drastically increase the efficiency of your development team and also increase the conviviality of your workplace.

One of the most difficult parts of any Web project is establishing an accurate timeline for completion of the project. There are so many unknown factors that can creep up during a project that will inevitably delay the project.

So how do you try and account for these factors and establish a schedule you can count on? The simple answer is to break a project down to its smallest pieces and project those items.

It’s so much easier to put a time estimate on a task that has been broken down into its pieces. For example, let’s say one of the big project tasks is to develop a shopping cart. That’s a pretty daunting task to try and slap a time estimate on if you don’t know all the individual pieces that make up that task. So, the best thing to do is take that tasks, break it down and then project those smaller pieces. So in our shopping cart example, I might break it down like this:

• Build front-end shopping cart graphics – 4 hours
• Install shopping cart software – 12 hours
• Integrate software with merchant account – 8 hours

Of course, I can then break these tasks down into their pieces as well if I don’t think I can accurately gauge their times as well. Then I can simply add up my times to get an idea of how long a big task will actually take me.

When I begin working with a client, the first topic I discuss is the specific list of site features and the sitemap. My goal of tackling this subject is to get an idea of all the different components that will make up a project. My next step is to break all these items into their individual tasks. Only then can I accurately estimate a timeline for a project.

Creating a timeline can be intimidating. When you have some many items to get done and so many moving pieces that are always threatening to derail your project, the best bet is to deconstruct the project. Put times to items and then do your best to stick to them. That’s the key to effectively establishing a project timeline you can live with.