Posts Tagged ‘website’

The 90 / 10 Rule of Web Development

May 25th, 2010

It seems that every web site project I am involved with has some little issue at the end that is hard to figure out. It may be a CSS style problem where something is not looking as I predicted. Or it may be finding a solution that is acceptable in multiple browsers. Sometimes, there is one little piece of functionality that is not working as expected.

I call this phenomenon the 90 / 10 rule because we can usually prepare and plan for about 90% of a web development project. But it is the last 10% that cannot be fully planned for, or expected up front.

What to do?

Allow time. First of all, you should plan for the unexpected. You don’t know what the issue will be, but there is always something. Allow time to de-bug and investigate those last items. Don’t be designing and coding right up til the deadline. Do a soft launch ahead of time.

Test. Test as much as possible. Get the site up onto a host where people can go through and try out the functionality. Plan for a way to do this, whether it’s using a development area, a different directory, or a temporary URL.

Revise. Go back to the original intent and see whether or not a different solution is possible. For example, there is often more than one way to use CSS to create a layout. Sometimes it’s better to take a different path to the end result, rather than 0nly trying to debug the current solution.

Is it critical?

There are times when trying to get the last detail fixed is very difficult. Hour after hour is spent identifying the problem and trying solutions. Some of these times we need to step back and ask how critical something is to the solution.

I hate stepping back. I usually worry that I’m giving up on the one little detail the client absolutely loved. I’d rather be the hero who figures it all out, and compromises nothing.

I think that the problem is the word compromise. Many web designers and developers tend to think of it as a compromise if we readjust and remove an element (design or functionally) from a web site. But often times, when we step back, we realize it is not critical. In the best of times, we realize that another solution is more functional and is even better.

What are you expectations?

I’m curious about other people’s expectations, whether you are a designer, developer or client.

Are you open to compromising on those last head-banging details, or do you always try to make it work? Have you improved on the 90/10 rule—maybe you’re at 95/5?

Another problem with these last details is that they can seriously eat into profitability. If you think you’ve got 90% of the work done, but then spend another 25% of your time on that last bit, you may have just lost the profit margin on a job. Are you up front with your clients about the problems, solutions, and time involved?

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Posted in Web Design | 4 Comments »

President Obama Promotes Web Site in State of the Union Address

January 27th, 2010

President Obama Talks about Web Sites during the State of the Union

President Obama Talks about Web Sites during the State of the Union

I did my civic duty and watched the State of the Union address last night. I was raised to believe it is my duty as an American citizen to listen to this yearly speech by our President, and I think I’ve watched nearly everyone since starting sometime in high school.

And I believe it may be the first time the President even said the word web site.

President Obama mentioned using web site technology to track earmark spending. He said:

“I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there’s a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.”

I found it fascinating that the President of the United States was talking about some of the same issues that small business owners face with using and maintaining their own web sites.

  1. You need to have a web site. Obama mentioned briefly that some politicians had already started posting earmarks, but that not everyone was following this protocol. So I was a bit confused if there is one central web site already. If so, anyone know the URL?

    For your small business, you absolutely need to have a web presence, and then make your web site known to potential clients and search engines. You need to see it as a business tool, marketing tool, sales funnel, etc.

  2. You need to have a way to easily update and maintain content. Obama is asking lawmakers to update this web site, which makes me wonder what type of Content Management System (CMS) is in place.

    Make it easy on yourself to make updates. Invest in a CMS that allows you to quickly and easily make updates. You (or whoever will be doing the udpates) should be well-trained on how to do regular content updates. If you’ve forgotten, get retrained by your web developer and document the process.

  3. You need a system for making these updates. My question to Congress is, who will actually be the one to write, edit, and post these details? Whose job is it? The senator, an aide, a web master, or who?

    Once you have a CMS or a blog in place, do you have some systems in place to keep you on track? Is there someone who has accountability for making posts and updates? Do you have an editorial calendar and/or a schedule for doing maintenance to double check and update content?

  4. Is your content relevant? I’m interested to see the actual web site in question because I wonder how useful it will be to the average American. Will it be searchable? Will it be written in a style that is readable?

    As you write text or add other material to your web site you need to be asking yourself a similar question. Will this engage my reader and get them to take the next step that I want them to take? That action may be to call you, or to read more, or to buy something. If your viewers cannot find the information they seek, or they do not find your site compelling, they’ll likely just surf on over to the next site.

I was quite surprised to hear, even in passing, the president mentioning how a web site can help with productivity. But that really is the reason behind so many web sites: they should work to help you achieve your goals, or your business’ goals.

Now who has the web site address that Obama is talking about?

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Posted in Design Basics, Design Trends, Web Design | 4 Comments »

7 Reasons Why Your Web Site is NOT Finished

December 1st, 2009

A new web site launch or redesign is an exciting project. After months of work, you are finally ready to present your new web site to the world. And you’re also pretty excited to have that big project finally done. Unfortunately, you should never think of your web site as complete, because it should be a living and thriving entity.

There are many reasons why a Web site cannot be shelved and not thought about again.

  1. Content should be up-to-date. Your business is always changing. You may have new services, different hours, a special sale, additional staff, etc. Many changes that happen in your business need to be reflected in the content of your web site.
  2. Content should be new and engaging. Beyond updates that reflect your offline business, your web site ideally should have some content that gets updated as a way to build your web site into your marketing plan. This could be as full-blown as a blog, but may just be a smaller “news” area, an articles library, etc.
  3. Links become broken. No, it’s not evil elves, but yes sometimes links stop working. For example, if you link to a page on another web site, and that web site goes through a redesign, you may find that your direct link no longer goes to the content you planned. Therefore, either manually or using an automated tool, you need to check your site for broken links.
  4. Search Engine Optimization is always changing. There are universal best-practices for search engine optimization, such as putting key words in your H1 tags, creating descriptive tags for your images, etc. But there are other areas of SEO that are a moving target. Depending on how closely you want to follow that game you may find yourself making some updates to appear better in search results. One example is that meta description tags have always been a sentence-like description of the site. But more recently, there seems to be a premium for keeping that description succint, generally less than about 160 characters.
  5. Software upgrades. You may not think that a web site needs software updates, but they sometimes do. Depending on the technology that is driving your site, you may need to upgrade software such as WordPress and the related plugins. And whenever you do an upgrade there is a small chance that something on your site will no longer work. If you use popular software and plugins this is less likely a problem, because someone else will have already figured out a solution. But you need to budget time to keep up with upgrades.
  6. Technology changes. The technology available to build and view web sites is constantly changing, and hopefully improving. At the time you launch your site you have to make decisions about what are “best practices” today, knowing that those will change as technology changes.
  7. Tastes change. You know how you are able to look at a photograph and know it was taken years ago? You can tell by the hairstyles and clothes of the people, you may also be able to tell by the technology of the photo (ie a black & white print). This can be similar with web sites. Sometimes you look at a web site and just know it feels out of date. As an example (right now in December 2009) it is popular for body text to be set with a lot of leading (line space) and usually in a gray rather than true black. This is highly readable, but I still predict it will not be the trend 10 years from now.

Now that you know that your web site is something that needs continual attention, make sure you budget for that work. You should plan for time internally checking that content is up-to-date and accurate. You should also budget some time with your web developer for technology upgrades.

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Posted in Web Design | 5 Comments »