Incumbent upon a professional is surveying the landscape of his profession — noting best of’s, worst of’s, and everything in between.
The Web Strategy team at Worthwhile, we look at hundreds of websites each week, only we’re not only creating/developing websites or just surfing the Web for fun. We view the Web from a critical perspective, since, as mentioned above, that’s what we do!
Observations aren’t absolute. Neither are they to be fully considered as science. Nevertheless, observations from experts regarding their field are helpful.
At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, here are some commonly ignored and neglected Web practices that you should be aware of, especially if you depend on a Web firm for your Web development:
- Cross-browser Optimization: “Cross-browser stuff is overrated. I mean, my website is optimized for 85% of all internet users.” Problem: You don’t know who’s using YOUR website. It really doesn’t matter for which browsers you are optimized; only the ones for which you’re not optimized really matter. Why? Almost every user to visit your site will only ever see your site in one browser. If they have significant layout issues or part of the page doesn’t load, you’ve just made a costly mistake that, worst of all, may never be realized, since it’s hard to measure the clients you didn’t know you lost. Fact: Not all Web developers cross-browser optimize. Make sure yours does, and does it well.
- Testing: “Are you saying that someone would actually launch a site to the world that hadn’t been fully tested doubly through?” Um. Yes. Absolutely. It’s frightening really. While Cross-browser Optimization is (should be) a main avenue of website testing, it involves so much more than that. Once you’ve proofed the site for grammatical/typographical mistakes and link-checking, I’d say the most important website testing possible is usability testing — Is this website as usable as possible? What could be done (within scope) to give the user a better experience? Is a solid landing page needed here? — The list could go on. The point is, testing isn’t just to make sure the thing works. It needs to work WELL. And you thought design was the only beautiful part of a website.
- Goal-driven execution: “What the heck, right? What does that mean?” Frankly, I’m tired of hearing from potential clients, “Well, Steve Fred said he could build me a website for 1/2 of your price.” Questions I want to ask if the conversation continues — (1) Is Steve Fred a professional? (2) Is he a loner or a part of an expert team? (3) Do you think I’m intimidated that he can build a site cheaper? Ask BMW if they could build a car for 1/2 of the price that a 3 series sells for. SURE THEY CAN. Would they? Nope. Why? Quality costs money. Certain goals have to be met to achieve “The Ultimate Driving Experience.” It takes time (and costs money) to plan a Web project around very precise goals and to properly execute the project through the filter of those goals.
Closing Argument: Not all websites are created equally. Success in a Web project isn’t only linked to the launching of that project. There are other seemingly-minute elements in Web design and production that will cost you dearly if you don’t pay for them. Stay Quality, my friends.
